with a 10th-century tower. The place was ruined at a very early period, owing to the Saracenic invasions, and though many Popes have made attempts to re-colonise it, they have always failed. As early as 1019 there were no inhabitants save a few guards in the tower of Porto, though it was the seat of a bishop, and though it has always continued to give a title to the sub-dean of the College of Cardinals. The meadows near Porto, which are encircled by the two branches of the Tiber, form the Isola Sacra, a name first given to it by Procopius, who describes it : 'Tum demum ad naves gradior, qua fronte bicorni Dividuus Tiberis dexteriora secat. Laevus inaccessis fluvius vitatur arenis : Hospitis Aeneae gloria sola manet.'—I. 169. The island is described by Aethicus, who wrote in the 5th century, as most beautiful and fertile-‘Libanus Almae Veneris ;' now it is in great part overgrown with asphodel and mallow. The name of its church with the tall mediaeval campanile-S. Ippolito-will recall the famous Bishop of Porto. In the first half of the third century, during the troubled pontificates of Zephyrinus and Callistus, when various heresies on minute points of Christian doctrine were agitating and dividing the Church, the great defender of the faith, the author of ‘The Refutation of all the Heresies,' who did not hesitate to resist and condemn one Pope and actually excommunicate another, was Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, who was afterwards (under Maximin) banished to Sardinia, and eventually, according to the poetic legend in Prudentius, suffered martyrdom in the suburbs of Rome. Here Dante makes the rendezvous of the happy souls, whom the celestial pilot is presently to transport to Purgatory. 'Sempre quivi si ricoglie, Qual verso d' Acheronte non si cala.'--' Purg.' ii. 104. The mouth of the Tiber is very different now to that which Virgil describes :— 'Atque hic Aeneas ingentem ex aequore lucum In mare prorumpit. Variae circumque supraque Imperat; et laetus fluvio succedit opaco.'-'Aen.' vii. 29. 'Les tourbillons du fleuve, le sable qui le jaunit caractérisent aujourd'hui l'aspect du Tibre comme au siècle de Virgile; mais on ne peut plus parler de son cours gracieux, le bois a disparu et les oiseaux se sont envolés; on ne voit aux embouchures du Tibre qu'une plaine sans arbres, comme sans habitants, où des buffles paisent parmi les marécages. Aux buffles près, qui sont modernes, ce lieu devait être ainsi avant que le voisinage d'Ostie y eût fait naître une végétation qui s'en est allée avec Ostie. Aujourd'hui c'est une plage stérile plus semblable qu'au temps de Virgile à ce qu'elle était au temps d'Enée.'— Ampère, Hist. Rome,' i. 193. From Porto, two miles of road, or a few minutes of railway, take one to Fiumicino, which derives its name from its situation on the smaller branch of the Tiber, and which stands at the present mouth of the river. A row of modern houses was erected by the late Government, but have little view of the sea, owing to the sandbanks. The handsome castellated tower, with a lighthouse on the top, was built by Clement XIV. in 1773.] Magliana (Stat.). Here, encircled by crumbling embattled walls, still stands the favourite residence of Leo X., in which he died very suddenly, in 1521, after receiving the news that his party had triumphantly entered Milan. The courtyard has a pretty fountain. All the best of the frescoes in the villa have been removed to the Capitoline Gallery ; they were probably executed by Lo Spagna, though designed by Raffaelle. Now the view opens upon the beautiful Campagna of Rome, backed by the Alban and Sabine hills, and with the long lines of the aqueducts stretching across it. 'Arches after arches in unending lines stretching across the uninhabited wilderness, the blue defined lines of the mountains seen between them; masses of nameless ruin standing like rocks out of the plain; and the plain itself, with its billowy and unequal surface, announces the neighbourhood of Rome.'-Shelley, ‘Letters.' On the right, by the Tiber, we see the Basilica of S. Paolo fuori le Mura; on the left, S. Peter's, the Aventine, Palatine, Capitol, and S. Pietro in Montorio. Then we cross the Tiber and skirt the south-eastern walls of Aurelius, seeing, (left) the Porta S. Paolo, with the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, the Aventine and S. Sabina, the Porta S. Sebastiano; on the right the tomb of Cecilia Metella, the Via Appia, the façade of the Lateran, S. Croce, the Aqueduct of the Aqua Felice. Then comes the Porta Maggiore, close to which we enter Rome, and glide under the Temple of Minerva Medica, and near S. Maria Maggiore, into the Station at the Baths of Diocletian. 167 CHAPTER XXV. BETWEEN FLORENCE AND ROME (AREZZO, CORTONA, ORVIETO, AND CIVITA CASTELLANA). (TH HE railway from Florence to Arezzo (9 frs. 95 c.; 7 frs.) leads through the valleys of the Chiana and the Upper Arno; the latter celebrated for its fossil remains. It passes S. Giovanni (Stat.), the birthplace of Masaccio (Tommaso di Giovanni), 1402, and of Giovanni (Mannozzi) di S. Giovanni, 1590. In the Church of S. Lorenzo is a Madonna attributed to Masaccio.) Arezzo (Stat.). (Inns-Vittoria, good; Inghilterra, opposite-both in the Via Cavour. Carriages to or from the station, I fr.). Arezzo is a charming place with a bright Tuscan aspect, and it will strike travellers coming from the south by the cheerfulness of its broad pavements and the green shutters of its houses. As Arretium, one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan confederation, it was celebrated for its vases of red pottery. It was the head-quarters of the Consul Flaminius before the battle of Thrasymene. In the Middle Ages it chiefly held with the Ghibelline party. Among its famous citizens have been Maecenas ; Petrarch; Margaritone, 1236; Spinello the artist, 1328; Pietro (Bacci) Aretino, 1492; Vasari, and many other distinguished persons. There are no Etruscan remains in Arezzo except in the Museum, and it is even doubtful whether the existing town occupies the exact site of the old city. The sights of Arezzo may be well seen in a few hours, but it may also be made head-quarters for excursions to Borgo S. Sepolcro and Cortona. The Via Cavour, in which the hotels are situated, leads immediately into the Corso. Here, on the right, is the great Church of S Maria della Pieve, founded by Bishop Aribertus between 980 and 1000, but chiefly built in 1216 by the native architect Marchionne. 'Towards the end of the 12th, or beginning of the 13th century, the taste for extravagant or capricious ornament in architectural sculpture showed itself in the façade of the Pieve or parochial church of Arezzo, which was built by Marchionne, a native artist. It has three rows of columns, one above the other, bound together in groups of two, three, and four, varying in size, shape, and length, twisted like vines, or fashioned into human forms, based upon extravagantlyconceived animals, and covered with capitals fantastically ornamented.' -Perkins's Tuscan Sculptors.' The Interior has three aisles separated by tall pillars with richly sculptured Corinthian capitals. It is very simple and severe, and was restored 1874-75. At the High Altar is a S. George by Vasari. Opposite the church, beyond the entrance of the Via degli Albergotti, is the Palazzo Pubblico, 1332, covered with arms of Podestàs, a perfect museum of local heraldry. A little beyond this, on the left, at the entrance of the Via del Orte, is the Birthplace of Petrarch (July 20, 1304), whose father had been keeper of the archives to the Signoria of Florence, and was sent into exile with Dante. Here is the entrance of the truly charming public walk, planted with elms, and reaching to the walls, over which there is a beautiful view of the surrounding country. In No. 12 of the Via Ricasoli, which runs below the gardens, the poet Antonio Guadagnoli was born. On the edge of the stone platform opposite is a statue of Ferdinand I. by Giovanni da Bologna, 1595. Adjoining the public walks is the Gothic Cathedral, built of yellow stone, with an octangular campanile. It was begun The west front is unfinished, and its statues are in 1277. |