ABSTRACT
Whoever takes the high-road from Rome to Naples, issuing by the ancient Porta San Giovanni, may pause to contemplate one of the finest views of picturesque desolation which even Italy presents. The town of Velletri well belongs to this region of plunder and desolation; and before the gates of its filthy and incommodious inn, travellers assemble to pursue their route in company, and to give a reciprocal protection to each other, in the perilous journey which awaits them between Rome and Naples. The French, when in possession of Rome and Naples, instantly began a reform in this ancient branch of the legislature of “the See” and “the kingdom”. Some traveller, possibly, returning from Naples, a pilgrim or a peasant, urging his way to a shrine or a market, may present himself on this gloomy route; but the soil once so fertile, the land once so populous, has no inhabitant.
