Doric, but the columns have bases, which are hardly to be found in any
other example, either Greek or Roman. These bases are so much decayed,
that one cannot venture to decide on the form of the mouldings, but I
think there was no fillet. The pilaster capital differs from that of the
column. In the lower town there are some remains of a temple of Castor
and Pollux. It is of the Corinthian order, and the foliage is in the
Greek style, and in, and about it are many portions of Cyclopean walls.
A Roman bridge still exists over the deep and narrow chasm I have before
mentioned, and in the chasm is a mill (not ancient), where corn is
ground for the inhabitants of Cora, after heavy rains; but it is only in
such circumstances that there is any water in the hollow. There are some
cloisters of the middle ages in the church of Santa Olivia, which
deserve to be looked at. They are in two stories, with twice as many
arches in the upper as the lower, all resting upon columns; there is a
good space between the stories, but it wants a little more ornament. In
one church, the font is an ancient altar, with rams’ heads at the
corners.
After looking over these antiquities on the evening of my arrival, and
the following morning, I returned to Velletri. I had been able to get
coffee for my breakfast at Cora, but no milk, which in a mountainous
country rather surprised me; but for luncheon I obtained some _ricotta_,
which is goat’s milk curd, boiled I believe, and pressed into little
baskets. On the 13th I left the high road, and crossed the fields by a
shorter path to Genzano. The scenery is delightful, but the heat was
oppressive, for there was no wind, and the path is very much exposed to
the sun. From Genzano, I descended to the lake of Nemi to look at the
Emissario, which I had missed before, and which was hardly worth
visiting, but some fine plane trees growing by the side of the water,
and shading it by their spreading branches, very much embellished the
scene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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