TOMB OF ARUNS. 59 The Milky Way streams like a torn veil over the heavens. The villa fronts whiten in the moonlight among the grey smoke-like olives that crowd the slopes. Vines wave from the old towers and walls, and from their shadow comes a song to the accompaniment of a guitar-it is a tenor voice, singing 'Non ti scordar, non ti scordar di me.' "Nothing can be more exquisite than these summer nights in Italy. The sky itself, so vast, tender, and delicate, is like no other sky. As you stand on one of the old balconies or walls along the terraces of the Frescati villas, looking down over the mysterious Campagna, and listening to the continuous splash of fountains and the song of nightingales, you feel Italy—the Italy of Romeo and Juliet. Everything seems enchanted in the tender splendour. The stars themselves burn with a softer, more throbbing and impulsive light. The waves of the cool, delicate air, passing over orange and myrtle groves, and breathing delicately against the brow and cheeks, seem to blow open the inmost leaves of the book on which youth painted its visionary pictures with the colours of dreams. In a word, we say this is Italy-the Italy we dreamed of-not the Italy of fleas, couriers, mendicants, and postilions, but of romance, poetry, and passion."—Story's Roba di Roma, i. 298. As soon as the visitor is settled in his hotel he will probably wander up to the end of the street, where he will at once find himself amid the greatest attractions of the place. Just below the road, upon the right, is the tomb of Aruns, son of Porsenna. It is a huge square base with four cones rising from it, and a central chamber, in which an urn with ashes was discovered some years ago. Aruns was killed by Aristodemus of Cuma before Ariccia, which his father had sent him to besiege: his tomb is identified by the description which Pliny gives of that of Porsenna, but it was long supposed to be the monument of the Horatii and Curiatii. Below the tomb of Aruns, the old road to Ariccia winds through the hollow, amid rocks and trees, which, alas, have lately been pollarded. Still the glen must always be full of beauty, and is the constant summer resort of landscapepainters. "From Albano we had to go on foot for the short and beautiful remainder of the way through Ariccia. Reseda and golden cistus grew wild by the road-side; the thick, juicy olive-trees cast a delicious shade. I caught a glimpse of the distant sea; and upon the mountain-slopes by the wayside, where a cross stood, merry girls skipped dancing past us, yet never forgetting piously to kiss the holy cross. The lofty dome of the church of Ariccia I imagined to be that of S. Peter, which the angels had hung up in the blue air among the dark olive-trees."-Improvisatore. H. C. Andersen. The ravine is now called Vallericcia, and was once a sheet of water called Lacus Aricinus. Near the road are some small remains supposed to be those of a temple of Diana. "The ceremonies of the temple of Aricia were, according to Strabo, barbaric and Scythian, like those of the Tauric Diana. The priest (Rex Nemorensis) was always a fugitive who had slain his predecessor, and always had in his hand a drawn sword, to defend himself from a similar fate. There was a tree near the temple, whence if a fugitive could approach and carry off a bough, he was entitled to the duel, or monomachia, with the Rex Nemorensis. "A most curious basso-relievo was found in the neighbourhood some years ago, representing several personages, among whom is the priest, lately in possession, lying prostrate, with his entrails issuing from a Now at Palma in Majorca. wound, inflicted by his successor, who stands over him with his sword; there are also several females in long robes, in the Etruscan style, who seem to invoke the gods. This basso-relievo and the passage of Strabo seem to explain each other."-Sir W. Gell. Hippolytus or Urbius, the legendary founder of Ariccia, was joined with Diana in the worship of the inhabitants, and is commemorated with her by many of the Latin poets. 66 "Jamque dies aderat ; profugis cum regibus altum Stat. Silv. iii. 1. "Ecce suburbanæ templum nemorale Dianæ, Ovid. Art. Am. i. 259. "Nympha, mone, Nemori stagnoque operata Dianæ ; Vallis Aricinæ sylva præcinctus opaca Est lacus, antiqua religione sacer. Hic jacet Hippolytus furiis direptus equorum," &c. Ovid. Fast. iii. 261. "Lucus eum, nemorisque tui Dictynna recessus Celat: Aricino Virbius ille lacu est." Ovid. Fast. vi. 755. nam conjux urbe relicta Vallis Aricine densis latet abdita sylvis: Sacraque Oresteæ gemitu questuque Dianæ Impedit. Ah quoties Nymphæ nemorisque lacusque, Ne faceret, monuere." Ovid. Metam. xv. 487. "Ibat et Hippolyti proles pulcherrima bello, Virgil. Æn. vii. 761. "At Trivia Hippolytum secretis alma recondit Virgil. Æn. vii. 774. "Jam nemus Egeriæ, jam te ciet altus ab Alba 66 Val. Flac. Arg. ii. 304. quos miserat altis Egeriæ genitos immitis Aricia lucis, Ætatis mentisque pares; at non dabat ultra Sil. Ital. iv. 368. The steep ascent from Vallericcia to the town is also com memorated by the poets. "accedo Bovillas Clivumque ad Virbi: præsto est mihi Manlius hæres." Persius. Sat. vi. 56. "Irus tuorum temporum sequebaris. Migrare Clivum crederes Aricinum." Martial. xii. Ep. 32. The steepness of the hill from the earliest times afforded great advantages to the beggars. "Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes, Blandaque devexæ jactaret basia rhedæ." Juvenal. Sat. iv. 117. The rich country upon which we look down was as famous in ancient as in modern times for the produce of its vineyards. "Est mihi nonum superantis annum Plenus Albani cadus." Horace. Od. iv. 11. "Hic herus, Albanum, Mæcenas, sive Falernum "Hoc de Cæsareis mitis vindemia cellis Sat. ii. 8. Martial. xiii. 106. Aricia was also celebrated for its leeks : "Bruttia quæ tellus, et mater Aricia porri." Colum. R. Rust. x THE PALAZZO CHIGI. "Mittit præcipuos nemoralis Aricia porros." Martial. xiii. 16. 63 Some fragments of the ancient wall may be seen before entering the gate of Aricia with its forked Guelfic battlements. The city itself is of very ancient origin, being first mentioned in the story of Tarquinius Superbus, when Turnus Herdonius, its king, was drowned in the Aqua Ferentina. It was the birth place of Atia, mother of Augustus, and as such is extolled by Cicero in his third Philippic. : Aricia was a station on the Via Appia : "Nous arrivons avec Horace à Lariccia. Là nous disons comme lui: 'Egressum magna me excepit Aricia Roma' (Sat. i., S. i.) enchantés de ces délicieux aspects dont Horace, moins occupé que nous ne le sommes du pittoresque, n'a point parlé. La ville moderne de Lariccia s'est perchée, comme il arrive souvent, dans la citadelle de la ville ancienne. M. Pierre Rosa, cet explorateur infatigable et sagace de la campagne romaine, et qui excelle à découvrir les ruines que son aieul Salvator Rosa aimait à peindre, a cru retrouver les restes de la petite auberge (Sat. i., S. i.) où Horace a logé (hospicio modico), et même des vases contenant l'orge destinée aux montures des voyageurs."Ampère, Emp. Rom. i. 365. Lariccia is now chiefly remarkable for the huge Palace of the Chigi family, built by Bernini for Alexander VII. It is noble and imposing in its proportions, as it rises on huge buttresses from the depths of the ravine. In the interior are some interesting rooms hung with exceedingly curious stamped leather, and a chamber containing portraits of the twelve nieces of Alexander VII., who were so enchanted at the elevation of their uncle, that they all took the veil immediately to please him. Apartments are let here in the summer months, and are very delightful. Opposite the palace is the beautifully proportioned Church |