1
Taking our leave of Rome early on the morning of the first of May, we reached Albano for breakfast, distant sixteen miles.
Our party from Rome, besides myself, consisted of an Italian gentleman, a German, and a Frenchman. We were also accompanied by a lady, said to be a princess, and attended by a handsome man-servant.
After breakfast we received another and our last passenger, who was a Roman officer.
2
My companion in the cabriolet was the German, whom I took to be an artist, but who was by no means communicative, although he had some knowledge of the French, and a perfect one of the Italian language.
3
At four o'clock we reached Veletri, where it was intended we should rest for the night. But we were not indulged with supper until eight o'clock, and then it was too scanty to satisfy our hunger. In the interim, we amused ourselves with exploring the city, which my companions reported to be a fine old town, but neglected and thinly inhabited.
4
After supper I retired to the hardest bed which I have met with on my tour, but passengers in voitures are not to consider themselves entitled to the best apartments. The Roman officer, Frenchman and myself slept in one room. The princess and her servant, I was informed, occupied another, while the German was probably quartered with the vittureno.
5
In the morning at five o'clock we left Veletri. And as it was fine I walked some distance in company with the German.
6
We soon entered upon the Pontine marshes, which are still in some degree a fertile source of infectious miasma.
7
In the middle of the marshes we stopped to breakfast about eleven o'clock at a very poor inn. Soon after which a carriage arrived containing two English ladies who had slept at Veletri at the same inn where we did. But as they had taken breakfast previous to their departure, they were not induced to leave their carriage.
8
About two or three miles before arriving at Terracina, we passed the celebrated fountain of Feronia, situated within a few paces of the road, and where the goddess of that name formerly had a temple, but which has now disappeared. There is not a vestige, not even a stone remaining, while the once sacred grove by which it was surrounded has dwindled away, one single tree hanging a solitary mourner over the violated fountain.
It was here that this goddess of liberty and donatrix of personal freedom bestowed the boon of emancipation upon the slaves of ancient Rome.
Yes! Spirit of Liberty!
9
The mountains retired in such a way as to form a beautiful amphitheatre, richly clothed with luxuriant and diversified woods. Our road passed through the middle of this vale, bound on the right by a fine lake formed by the waters of innumerable mountain streams which run through the plain, beyond which lay the sea.
10
We reached St. Agado about seven in the evening, when we took up our quarters for the night. Here I was compelled to sleep in the same room with a man whom we had accidentally taken up on the road, and to which, being satisfied he was an indifferent character, I at first strenuously objected. But finding I could get no other accommodation, I at length acceded, on condition that a third bed in the room should be also occupied, which was then filled by the servant of the Italian lady.
11
We set out from St. Agado at four o'clock in the morning, and at ten reached Capua for breakfast. Here our vittureno drove us into the stable-yard and left us to get our breakfast where we could, for the inn was fully occupied by Austrian officers. There was no resource but to put up with a bad breakfast at a miserable coffee-house.
We here were informed that an English carriage had been stopped by banditti the preceding evening about a post on the other side of St. Agado, one of the horses shot dead and their courier wounded. But the robbers, becoming alarmed, took to flight before they had secured their booty. We congratulated ourselves upon an escape, having passed over the same ground only two hours before this actually occurred.
12
We passed through the neat and modern town of Averso, remarkable for having one of the best regulated and most interesting lunatic asylums in the world. The system of treatment embraces an extended plan of amusement, of which the charms of music form an important feature.
13
We reached Naples about four o'clock in the afternoon but it was some time before I could get comfortable accommodations. Our driver, probably imagining I should not be able to see into his stratagem, took every other passenger to his destined point before he would attend to myself, because the Largo Castello, to which I had directed him, happened to be near his own quarters.
Consequently it was near six o'clock before I arrived, and then I had the mortification to find the house too full to receive me. I was compelled to search for apartments elsewhere, and only with great difficulty at length succeeded. I was happy, after taking refreshment, to get into a more comfortable bed than I had done since I left Rome.
extract from The Narrative of a Journey through France, &c. (London, 1822) by James Holman FRS, pp.177-186, edited by Joe Rizzo Naudi.