o the
convent of the church called S. Maria Sopra Minerva. I had a
recommendation to the principal librarian, a Dominican friar, who
received me very politely, and regaled me with a sight of several
curious MSS. of the classics.

Having satisfied my curiosity at Rome, I prepared for my departure, and
as the road between Radicofani and Montefiascone is very stony and
disagreeable, I asked the banker Barazzi, if there was not a better way
of returning to Florence, expressing a desire at the same time to see
the cascade of Terni. He assured me that the road by Terni was forty
miles shorter than the other, much more safe and easy, and accommodated
with exceeding good auberges. Had I taken the trouble to cast my eyes
upon the map, I must have seen, that the road by Terni, instead of
being forty miles shorter, was much longer than the other: but this was
not the only mistake of Signiore Barazzi. Great part of this way lies
over steep mountains, or along the side of precipices, which render
travelling in a carriage exceeding tedious, dreadful, and dangerous;
and as for the public houses, they are in all respects the most
execrable that ever I entered. I will venture to say that a common
prisoner in the Marshalsea or King's-Bench is more cleanly and
commodiously lodged than we were in many places on this road. The
houses are abominably nasty, and generally destitute of provision: when
eatables were found, we were almost poisoned by their cookery: their
beds were without curtains or bedstead, and their windows without
glass; and for this sort of entertainment we payed as much as if we had
been genteelly lodged, and sumptuously treated. I repeat it again; of
all the people I ever knew, the Italians are the most villainously
rapacious. The first day, having passed Civita Castellana, a small town
standing on the top of a hill, we put up at what was called an
excellent inn, where cardinals, prelates, and princes, often lodged.
Being meagre day, there was nothing but bread, eggs, and anchovies, in
the house. I went to bed without supper, and lay in a pallet, where I
was half devoured by vermin. Next day, our road, in some places, lay
along precipices, which over-hang the Nera or Nar, celebrated in
antiquity for its white foam, and the sulphureous quality of its waters.

Sulfurea nar albus aqua, fontesque velini.

Sulphureous nar, and the Velinian streams.

It is a small, but rapid stream, which runs not far from hence, into