ve recourse to swimming, and
then to take the narrow paths leading from its margin. Nothing, until
at a very short distance from the grotto, interrupts the monotony of
these rural sites and situations. The traveller plods his way through
a gorge, or ravine, where upon all sides the view is bounded by rocks,
and a long line of verdant vegetation, composed of the shrubs that
cover the hills. But through a vast winding, or rather turning, made
by the river, the eye is suddenly dazzled by the splendid panorama
that seems to develop itself and move on with fairy magnificence. Let
the reader imagine that he is standing at the base of two immense
mountains, resembling two pyramids in their form, both equally alike
and similar in height. The space that intervenes between them allows
the eye to plunge into the distance, and to discover there a tableau,
a picture, or view, which is impossible to be described. Between
the two monster mountains the river has found an issue, and there
the traveller beholds it at his feet, precipitating itself like an
impetuous torrent in the midst of white marble rocks. The water, both
limpid and glossy, seems to play with every object that impedes its
course; at one moment it will form a noisy cascade, and then suddenly
disappear at the foot of an enormous rock, and soon after appear again,
bubbling and foaming, just as if some supernatural strength had worked
it from the bowels of the earth. Farther on, and in forming itself into
a continuous number of minor cascades, this same river flows, with a
vast silvery surface, over a bed of marble, as white and as brilliant
as alabaster, and falls upon others of still equal whiteness. Finally,
after having passed over all difficulties, all dangers, it flows with
much more modesty over a humble bed, where may be seen the reflection
of the admirable vegetation its banks are embellished with.

The famous grotto is situated in the mountain on the right side of
the river, which the traveller crosses over by jumping from one block
of marble to another; and then, after having ascended a steep height
of about two hundred yards, he finds himself at the entrance to the
grotto, whither I shall conduct the reader step by step.

The entrance, the form of which is almost regular, represents pretty
well the portico of a church, with a full arch, adorned with verdant
festoons, composed of creeping plants and bind-weeds. When the visitor
has once passed under the portico