I myself, with J----[27] for my
companion, kept on even to the city gate, a distance, I should think, of
two or three miles, at least. The lower part of the road was on the edge
of the hill, with a narrow valley on our left; and as the sun had now
broken out, its verdure and fertility, its foliage and cultivation,
shone forth in miraculous beauty, as green as England, as bright as only
Italy.

Perugia appeared above us, crowning a mighty hill, the most picturesque
of cities; and the higher we ascended, the more the view opened before
us, as we looked back on the course that we had traversed, and saw the
wide valley, sweeping down and spreading out, bounded afar by mountains,
and sleeping in sun and shadow. No language nor any art of the pencil
can give an idea of the scene....

We plunged from the upper city down through some of the strangest
passages that ever were called streets; some of them, indeed, being
arched all over, and, going down into the unknown darkness, looked like
caverns; and we followed one of them doubtfully, till it opened, out
upon the light. The houses on each side were divided only by a pace or
two, and communicated with one another, here and there, by arched
passages. They looked very ancient, and may have been inhabited by
Etruscan princes, judging from the massiveness of some of the foundation
stones. The present inhabitants, nevertheless, are by no means princely,
shabby men, and the careworn wives and mothers of the people, one of
whom was guiding a child in leading-strings through these antique
alleys, where hundreds of generations have trod before those little
feet. Finally we came out through a gateway, the same gateway at which
we entered last night.

The best part of Perugia, that in which the grand piazzas and the
principal public edifices stand, seems to be a nearly level plateau on
the summit of the hill; but it is of no very great extent, and the
streets rapidly run downward on either side. J---- and I followed one of
these descending streets, and were led a long way by it, till we at last
emerged from one of the gates of the city, and had another view of the
mountains and valleys, the fertile and sunny wilderness in which this
ancient civilization stands.

On the right of the gate there was a rude country path, partly overgrown
with grass, bordered by a hedge on one side, and on the other by the
gray city wall, at the base of which the tract kept onward. We followed
it, hoping