_As the road is very dusty and uninteresting, we will take the lane, which conducts us, after a pleasant stroll, to the_ ACQUA ACETOSA, a mineral spring, enclosed in a fountain by Bernini, and surrounded by a small grove. The view of the Tiber here is very fine, particularly when the river has risen. On the opposite bank rises the picturesque ruin, Tor di Quinto, the tomb of Ovid's family. The hill _to the right_ was the site of Antemnæ. (See page 309.) _Below, on the left_, THE PONTE MOLLE bursts on our sight. It was built by Pius VII. in 1815, on the foundations of the Pons Milvius, "which the elder Scaurus is said to have built" (Marcellinus, xxvii. iii. 9), and near which Constantine defeated Maxentius, October 27th, 312, a victory so graphically depicted by Raphael on the Vatican walls. "Maxentius endeavouring to cross the bridge of boats constructed for the use of his army, a little below the Ponte Molle, was thrown by his frightened horse into the waters, and eaten up by the quicksands on account of the weight of his cuirass. Constantine had great difficulty in finding his corpse" (Aurelius Victor). _Crossing the bridge, the road_ _Via Flaminia_, _to the right, leads us to_ PRIMA PORTA, the SAXA RUBRA of the ancient Romans, the first halting-place from Rome. _On the right, above the Osteria_, was situated the Veientina VILLA OF LIVIA, (_custodian next door to the church_), _about four miles from the bridge_, discovered in 1863. When first excavated, the frescoes and arabesques were found in a good state of preservation, but they have since been greatly damaged by atmospheric influences. Livia was the wife of Augustus, and mother of Tiberius. "Formerly, when Livia, after her marriage with Augustus, was making a visit to her villa at Veii, an eagle flying by let drop in her lap a hen, with a sprig of laurel (bay) in its mouth, just as it had been seized. Livia gave orders to have the hen taken care of, and the sprig of laurel set; and the hen reared such a numerous brood of chickens, that the villa to this day is called THE VILLA OF THE HENS. The laurel grove flourished so much, that the Cæsars procured thence the boughs and crowns they bore at their triumphs. It was also their constant custom to plant others in the same spot, immediately after a triumph; and it was observed that, a little before the death of each prince, the tree which had been set by him died away. But in the last year of Nero, the whole plantation of laurels perished to the very roots, and the hens all died" (Suetonius, "Galba," i.).