ABSTRACT
Naples is the ordinary termination of the stranger’s pilgrimage to Italy. More churches to visit, more palaces to see, more monuments to study, would become a duty, and cease to be an amusement; and it is a relief, rather than a disappointment, to learn that Naples contains few of any of these objects, worthy to arrest that attention on which Florence and Rome have already so deeply drawn. In Naples, and its environs, all evinces her vigour and activity—an activity that preys upon itself, a feverish vitality that consumes while it brightens. From Naples to Pompeii, the route along the bay includes not only one of the loveliest of the many lovely views of this region, but most of the principal objects for which the naturalist and antiquarian visit this extraordinary region—Herculaneum, Portici, Vesuvius. The most beautiful site in a picturesque point of view, in the environs of Naples, is the new road laid out by Murat.
