Here it was that I felt all the enthusiasm of my art suddenly awakened;
and I forgot, in an instant, all perils and fatigues at this
magnificent view of the sunrise in the midst of the mountains of
Abruzzi. It was on these heights that Hannibal first pitched his camp,
and pointed out Rome to his followers. The eye embraces a vast extent
of country. The minor height of Tusculum, with its villas, and its
sacred ruins, lie below; the Sabine hills and the Albanian mountains
stretch on either hand, and beyond Tusculum and Frescati spreads out
the immense Campagna, with its line of tombs, and here and there a
broken aqueduct stretching across it, and the towers and domes of the
eternal city in the midst.
Fancy this scene lit up by the glories of a rising sun, and bursting
upon my sight, as I looked forth from among the majestic forests of the
Abruzzi. Fancy, too, the savage foreground, made still more savage by
groups of the banditti, armed and dressed in their wild, picturesque
manner, and you will not wonder that the enthusiasm of a painter for a
moment overpowered all his other feelings.
The banditti were astonished at my admiration of a scene which
familiarity had made so common in their eyes. I took advantage of their
halting at this spot, drew forth a quire of drawing-paper, and began to
sketch the features of the landscape. The height, on which I was
seated, was wild and solitary, separated from the ridge of Tusculum by
a valley nearly three miles wide; though the distance appeared less
from the purity of the atmosphere.
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