Pozzuoli

“ One emerges into the fresh open air and the bright light of day with a feeling of relief.
The drive hence to Pozzuoli, four or five miles, was extremely beautiful. The fields were covered with the new tender grain, and by the short passage through the grotto we had changed a busy and crowded city for scenes of as quiet rural loveliness as ever charmed the eye. We soon reached the lip of the bay, and then the road turned away to the right, along the beach, passing the small island of Nisida (where Brutus had a villa, and which is now a prison for the carbonari) . ”

“ Pozzuoli soon appeared, and mounting a hill we descended into its busy square, and were instantly beset by near a hundred guides, boatmen, and beggars, all preferring their claims and services at the tops of their voices. I fixed my eye on the most intelligent face among them, a curly-headed fellow in a red lazzaroni cap, and succeeded, with some loss of temper, in getting him aside from the crowd and bargaining for our boats. ”

“ He passed through the long grotta of Posillipo, gloomy, chilly, and dank; then out again into the sunshine, and along the road to Bagnoli. On walls and stone-heaps the little lizards darted about, innumerable; in vineyards men were at work dismantling the vine-props, often singing at their task. From Bagnoli, still walking merely that a movement of his limbs might accompany his busy thoughts, he went along by the seashore, and so at length, still long before midday, had come to Pozzuoli. ”

“ Whilst here at Naples the blood in the phial boils up, making the straw fixed in the cold, dry clot move about, in Pozzuoli the blood on the marble block gets fresh and bright; and whoso standing on the shore has the eyes of faith sees the saint's livid, cut-off head floating in. The miracle is repeated twice every year. When it is later than the usual hour, it is a bad sign; it means a bad year: if he were not to do the miracle ... but the patron saint could not forsake his faithful city. ”

“ The most celebrated Maga of all is the demon who haunts a certain underground corridor near Pozzuoli, containing an immense hoard of gold and jewels, which he is willing to present to anybody that is ready to give in exchange a new-born baby, presumably for purposes of devouring. Nor was the general belief in the cave-dwelling monster at Pozzuoli limited to the poor peasants and fisher-folk, for rumour persistently asserted that King Francis of Naples, father of Bomba of impious memory, more than once [pg 110] attempted to negotiate with the guardian of this buried treasure ”

“ We have spent three or four days upon Pozzuoli and its environs; its cavern scooped originally by nature’s hand, assisted by the armies of Cocceius Nerva—ever tremendous, ever gloomy grotto!—which leads to the road that shews you Ischia, an old volcano, now an island apparently rent asunder by an earthquake, the division too plain to beg assistance from philosophy: this is commonly called the Grotto di Posilippo though; you pass through it to go to every place ”

“ From the termination of the grotto, after passing through 193the miserable village of Fuori Grotta, a straight road between vine-covered poplars, leads down to the sea-shore, which we coast for two or three miles, to Pozzuoli; the scenery is beautiful, but the sea is shallow and rocky. We pass under cliffs of lava, ejected from the Solfatara, rising in broken masses immediately above the road. The town is on a projecting rock, most picturesque in itself, and in its situation; and abundance of fragments of walls and vaults are seen on its rocky and broken shores, but they are mere fragments. ”

“ The electric tram and the rail-road have in fact killed Pozzuoli as a winter resort, more’s the pity, for it is not only a spot of singular interest in itself but its climate is certainly superior to that of Naples, for the great headland which shuts off the city from the Phlegrean Fields serves also to act as a buffer against the icy tramontana that sweeps along the Chiaja in winter and early spring. ”

“ In a short time the fire increased to such a degree that it burst open the earth in this place, and threw up a quantity of ashes and pumice-stones, mixed with water, which covered the whole country. The next morning the poor inhabitants of Pozzuoli quitted their habitations in terror, covered with the muddy and black shower, which continued the whole day in that country—flying from death, but with death painted in their countenances. Some with their children in their arms, some with sacks full of their goods; others leading an ass, loaded with their frightened family, towards Naples.... ”

“ The worst of Italy is the superabundance of the riches it offers ear and eye and nose—offers every sense—ending in a glut of pleasure. At the point where we descended from our carriage to look from the upland out over the vast hollow of land and sea toward Pozzuoli, which is so interesting as the scene of Jove's memorable struggle with the Titans, and just when we were really beginning to feel equal to it, a company of minstrels suddenly burst upon us with guitars and mandolins and comic songs much dramatized, while the immediate natives offered us violets and other distracting flowers. ”

“ And such is the state in the much-sung-of Naples, the old Parthenope, and the capital of Magna Grecia! The city has a peculiar interest for foreigners from the scenes which its popular life affords, and the beauty of its promenades and squares surrounding its bay. Villa Reale, with its marble churches and statues, its beautiful trees, shady alleys, and fountains; its air and the view over the sea, is the crown of all public grounds and promenades of the city. To-morrow, in company with some old and new acquaintance, I shall visit the remarkable places on the shore of Pozzuoli. ”

“ The way leads past the famous Grotto del Cane, along the Lago d'Agnano, once a lake, now drained. On the road to Pozzuoli, where the Serapeum has had literally so many ups and downs, is the Solfatara, another smaller but livelier crater. A steam-tramway also connects Pozzuoli and Naples, and this may be made the starting-point of a second excursion among further craters. Lake Avernus, etc., which should certainly include a climb up Monte Nuovo, newest of mountains. May you be more fortunate than I, and have a chance to go farther and visit Etna and Sicily! But most of us must now return. ”

“ Once more, as at the Solfatara, one has the sense of treading over some vast chasm filled with a sleeping power which may awake at any moment. Let us go on beyond the city and see what has happened elsewhere upon this bay, so beautiful and yet so deadly, a strange dwelling-place for men who have but one life to pass on the surface of this earth.
In passing out of Pozzuoli one sees upon the right 37 the vine-clad slopes of Monte Barbaro. ”

“ In such a country the land is often changing its level. A few miles from Naples at Pozzuoli, the ancient Puteoli, may be seen columns of what appears to be an ancient market hall, though it goes by the name of the Temple of Serapis. ”

“ No less than thirteen of the buttresses that supported its arches are left, three lying under water; all constructed of brick held together by that Roman cement called pozzolana, after the town of Pozzuoli, whose extraordinary tenacity rivals that of the living rock. You can plant your feet upon the very stones upon which the apostle must have stood. And if you happen to be there on the 3d of May you will see a solemn procession of the inhabitants of the decayed town, headed by their priests, celebrating the anniversary of this memorable incident. ”

“ Professor Lorenzo found the elevation of the land at Pozzuoli to be six inches, and at Portici one foot. [14] The foundations of both Etna and Vesuvius were ages ago laid in the sea.
[14] The coast about Pozzuoli is now sinking again.
In almost every part of the world there are raised beaches, such as we have already mentioned in the neighbourhood of Valparaiso, on the Chilian coast. The idea has been put forward by Dr. T. J. See that the same cause which produces earthquakes produces these elevations of the land and produces also volcanoes. ”

“ The inland road is the one which goes to Cumæ, and is entitled to respect, if not to veneration, as being among the oldest of Italian highways, the approach to the most ancient Greek settlement in Italy, mother city of Pozzuoli and of Naples, not to mention the mysterious Palæopolis, whose very existence has been disputed by some scholars. ”

“ At Puteoli or Pozzuoli, near Naples, the underground chambers of the amphitheatre are unusually perfect, and the brick floor over them, with numerous trap-doors, with deep grooves round the edge for a cover to fit tight over them when the surface was flooded [80] ; at Tusculum one of the canals has been excavated, the other is still buried. From these it appears that the naval fights were represented as in a river, rather than in the sea. ”

“ Description of Plate XXXII. THE AMPHITHEATRE AT POZZUOLI, NEAR NAPLES.
In this instance the arena has fortunately been preserved, with the trap-doors in it; those round the edge being for wild beasts, the others for men and dogs, and the central passage as in the Colosseum. We see that the central passage has been boarded over also. The arrangement of the seats in the galleries is also the same, and the tufa wall behind probably indicates that there was an awning over the galleries in the same manner. ”

“ How such a cone may be rapidly built up was well shown by the formation of Monte Nuovo, near Pozzuoli—a hill 400 ft. high and a mile and a half in circumference, which is known from contemporary evidence to have been formed in the course of a few days in September 1538. ”

“ Straight through the garden we reach a point of view which commands the bays of Naples and Pozzuoli, the Phlegræan plain with its numerous extinct craters, and the Bay of Gaëta as far as the distant Ponza Islands (p. 133) .
When ladies are of the party we turn to the right, near the N.W. angle of the monastery-wall, and descend a little to the (8 min.) gate of the Veduta Pagliana (adm. 20 c.) , where the view is similar.
Travellers whose time is limited may at least visit the *Strada Nuova di Posílipo (tramway No. 1; p. 137) . ”

“ Here is a specimen from the pages of the gossiping weaver, [165] of the sort of subjects which were the talk of the day in Naples in those times.
In December, 1507, a certain Spaniard, Pietro de Pace, by name, a hunchback, and much deformed, but who "was of high courage, and in terrestrial matters had no fear of spirits or of venomous animals," determined to explore the caverns of Pozzuoli; and discovered in them several bronze statues and medals, and antique lamps. He found also some remains of leaden pipes, on one of which the words "Imperator Cæsar" were legible. ”

“ Out of this rises the isolated bulk of Vesuvius. This growing mountain is manufactured exactly like an ant-hill.
The northwest side of the bay, keeping a general westerly direction, is very uneven, with headlands, deep bays, and outlying islands. First comes the promontory of Posilipo, pierced by two tunnels, partly natural and partly Greek and Roman work, above the entrance of one of which is the tomb of Virgil, let us believe; then a beautiful bay, the shore of which is incrusted with classic ruins. On this bay stands Pozzuoli, the ancient Puteoli where St. ”

“ Hence, we passed again those boiling and smoking hills, till we came to Pozzolo, formerly the famous Puteoli, the landing-place of St. Paul, when he came into Italy, after the tempest described in the Acts of the Apostles. Here we made a good dinner, and bought divers medals, antiquities, and other curiosities, of the country people, who [Pg 156] daily find such things among the very old ruins of those places. This town was formerly a Greek colony, built by the Samians, a seasonable commodious port, and full of observable antiquities. ”

“ We took the Posilippo road, intending to return by the Grotto of Puzzuoli. Nothing can be more beautiful than the view which greets you at the top of the hill, and which, in a steep winding descent, brings you to the town of Puzzuoli. [pg 554] To the left is a high bank of verdure covered with flowering shrubs, and here and there a goat browsing on some almost inaccessible peak. The sea always seemed to me to be even bluer here than in the Bay of Naples. We drive past places bearing some of the grandest names of antiquity; Puzzuoli itself was once a “little Rome”; Cicero's villa was here ”

“ The frescoes on the roof and tribune are by the Padre Pozzi.
"Amid the many distinguished men whom the Jesuits sent forth to every region of the world, I cannot recollect the name of a single artist unless it be the Father Pozzi, renowned for his skill in perspective, and who used his skill less as an artist than a conjuror, to produce such illusions as make the vulgar stare; to make the impalpable to the grasp appear as palpable to the vision; the near seem distant, the distant near; the unreal, real; to cheat the eye ”

“ He was an honest soul, and I gave him two florins, which I had tacitly appointed him over and above the bargain, with something for the small Brick-bats at home, whom he presently brought to kiss our hands at the house of the Capo-gente.
The village of Fozza is built on a grassy, oblong plain on the crest of the mountain, which declines from it on three sides, and on the north rises high above it into the mists in bleaker and ruggeder acclivities. There are not more than thirty houses in the village, and I do not think it numbers more than a hundred and fifty souls, if it numbers so many. ”