e palace whose convenient location made it
possible for the royal hosts to throw their guests into the sea whenever
they became tiresome, an accommodation that the modern hostess might, at
times, appreciate. On this road, winding up the Posilipo, is the villa
where Garibaldi passed the last winter of his life and which is marked
by a tablet. And everywhere and at every turn are the beautiful views,
commanding Bagnoli, Camaldoli, Ischia, Baia and Procida, Capri, Nisida
and the Neapolitan waters. The hill slopes are overgrown with myrtles
and orange trees and roses. Here and there a defile is filled with a
vineyard under careful culture.

In the presence of all this marvel of nature's loveliness the visitor
hardly remembers the historic interest; yet it was on the little island
of Nisida that Brutus and Cassius concocted the conspiracy against
Caesar. The vast Phlegraean Plain before the eye is invested with Hellenic
traditions and is the region of many scenes in the poems of Virgil and
Homer. In the years of the first and second centuries this plain was
dotted with the rich villas of the Roman aristocracy. Here, too, lay the
celebrated Lacus Avernus, a volcanic lake which the ancients regarded as
the entrance to Avernus itself. Truly it required little imagination to
see here the approach to the infernal regions. The air was so poisonous
that no bird could fly over the lake and live. Virgil's scene of the
descent of AEneas, guided by the sibyl, into the infernal depths is laid
here; and near this lake are resorts of the latter-day tourist, known
as the "Sibyl's Grotto," the "Grotto della Pace," the "Bagni di Sibyl,"
and the "Inferno."

[Illustration: ANCIENT TEMPLE, BAIAE
_Page 241_]

Baia, on the coast, was the Newport of Rome in the days of Augustus,
Hadrian, Cicero, and Nero. It was then the most magnificent summer
watering-place known to the world. The glory of the Roman Empire was
reflected in the glory of Baia. In one of the Epistles of Horace a Roman
noble is made to say: "Nothing in the world can be compared with the
lovely bay of Baia." Some five hundred years ago this region became so
malarial that no one could dwell in it. Fragments and ruins still remain
of the imposing baths and villas of the Roman occupancy. An old crater
called the Capo Miseno is described by Virgil as the burial place of
Misenus:--

"_At pius AEneas ingenti mole sepulcrum
Inponit, suaque arma viro remumque