CHAPTER XIV.

VELLETRI.

(Velletri is a station on the Naples line of railway, one hour and 20 minutes from Rome. The Locanda del Gallo is a comfortable and reasonable hotel. The vetturino Roberto Tasselli, 116 Strada Vittorio Emmanuele, is an honest man, and lets out capital carriages for excursions. A carriage for the day to Cora costs 25 francs, to Ninfa 22 francs, but the price must be settled beforehand.)

ELLETRI is in many respects a much better centre

VELLE

for excursions than Albano, being situated on the railway itself, so that tourists are saved the long drive down to the station, which makes excursions from the latter town so fatiguing. Its streets are wide and clean, and the air healthy and invigorating. Like Albano, it has no costumes of its own, but on festas the people flock in from the neighbouring villages, and enliven it with their white panni and brilliant red and blue bodices. Of the old Volscian city of Velitræ, which once occupied this site and which was so long at war with Rome, there are many scattered traces, and vestiges may be discovered of the vallum and fosse with which the place was surrounded by Coriolanus. But the inhabitants of the Volscian city were removed to Rome, where they became the forefathers of the Trasteverini, and though in imperial times the place had again a certain importance, and though Augustus himself is declared by the

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natives to have been born there (in contradiction to the account of Suetonius, who expressly states that he was born at Rome, at the sign of the Ox-heads, in the Palatium), the principal existing remains are all medieval.

From the station a gradual ascent leads into the town, fringed with trees, and with beautiful views of the Volscian range, over the hill-side slopes so rich in the vines which produce the famous wine of Velletri. The extraordinary folly which has affected almost every town in Italy since the change of government, has changed all the old historical appellations of the streets to the meaningless "Corso Cavour, Via Vittorio Emmanuele, Via Garibaldi," &c. One whole side of the principal square is occupied by the façade of the Palazzo Lancellotti, built by Martino Longhi. The exterior gives no idea of the extreme beauty of the interior, which is one of the most remarkable in Italy. On the first floor is an open gallery of immense length, the arcades divided by pillars richly decorated with caryatides. A marble staircase, with open loggias on every landing, ascends to the top of the palace, whence there is a glorious view, and beneath are beautiful gardens extending to the open country. Near the top of the staircase is a very fine statue of Minerva Pudicitia (with its own head, that at the Vatican being an addition) found at Velletri. The palace is now inhabited by Prince Gianetti, who kindly allows it to be shown to strangers, and it is well worth visiting.

Opposite the palace rises the beautiful tall detached campanile of Santa Maria in Trivio, raised to commemorate the deliverance of the city from the plague in 1348, whilst it was being besieged by Nicola Gaetani, Lord of Fondi. Other old palaces of impoverished nobles abound in the

smaller streets, the most remarkable being the Palazzo Filippi,

S. Maria in Trivio, Velletri.

which is really magnificent, in spite of its desertion and decay. The old palace of the popes, now called Palazzo Communale, built by Giacomo della Porta, occupies the highest part of the town, the citadel of old Velitræ, and beside it stands the palace of the Cardinal-Archbishop, with a bas-relief on its front commemorating the opening of the Via Appia Nuova by Pius IX., and an inscription rather inconsistent with present ideas -"Papalis et imperialis est mihi libertas." Close to these palaces are two little churches, San Michaele and Il Santissimo Sangue. Over the door of the latter is an ancient sun-dial"Horologium Beronianum"-found in the neighbouring ruins. In the interior is an inscription recording a miraculous appearance of the Virgin, and an altar to an early Christian who has been canonized on the belief that she was a martyr" Temporalem

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mortem S. Tertura Victorina contemnens coronam vitæ æternæ possidet in pace." By the side is the catacomb inscription:

In the lower part of the town is the Cathedral, dedicated

to S. Clemente, and partly ancient, though altered in 1660. It contains a chapel of the Borgias, who are still one of the great families of the place, with their monuments. On the left of the altar is a beautiful fresco of the Virgin and Child, with St. John, St. Sebastian, St. Jerome, and St. Roch, by an unknown artist of the Perugino school. In the sacristy is the lavamano, which Julius II. presented to the church while he was Cardinal-Archbishop of Velletri. Latino Orsini, to whom the hymn "Dies Ira" is wrongly attributed, but who was one of the most distinguished prelates of the thirteenth century, was also bishop here. We were present on Easter Sunday, when the existing archbishop performed high-mass in the presence of thousands of countrywomen, kneeling in their white and brown panni, and the sight was very imposing and impressive.

Nothing can be more charming than the environs of Velletri in early spring. It is almost the only place near Rome where the trees are allowed to grow at their own will, and are not cut into squares, and the lanes around are delightfully shady and attractive. Gulfs of verdure with little streams running in their deep hollows may be discovered in all directions, and there are also pleasant walks to many convents and churches on neighbouring heights. Near the Roman gate is the ascent to the Cappuccini, whence the view is especially fine, the long lines of the Pontine marshes and the beautiful Circean promontory being seen behind the old houses and churches of the town. In this direction is the battle-field where Charles III. of Naples gained the victory over the Austrians which gave the kingdom of the two Sicilies to the Spanish Bourbons. On the Naples road