day in that month.

But at length we have finished the ascent of the ridge, and our driver
halts for a moment at the inn of the "Due Golfi." A smiling damsel,
dressed in the picturesque native costume, advances to offer us the
national drink of Italy, sweet vermouth that is frothed up with a little
fizzing water in a narrow tumbler; and though carriage exercise is not
liable to produce thirst, yet we cannot be so churlish as to refuse the
draught, especially as the delay allows us to take our farewell look at
the Bay of Naples. For here we have reached the peak of the rocky saddle
that divides the two famous gulfs; and before us we now behold the wide
crescent of the Bay of Salerno with its sunburnt vineyards and its
precipitous cliffs. To our right we perceive the craggy headlands
stretching southward till they culminate in the Cape of Minerva:--how much
more attractive sounds the good old classical name than the new-fangled
Punta della Campanella, so called from the alarm bell which used to be
tolled in the ruined fortress at the approach of the Moslem pirate
galleys! Vastly different is the aspect on this side of the peninsula to
that which we have just left behind us. There is the plain below us,
thickly dotted with farms and villas set amidst crops and orchards, a
fertile scene of industry and population; here on the Salerno side are
wild stony tracts affording only pasturage for a few sheep and goats, and
covered for miles with broom, cytizus, coronella, myrtle, and numberless
fragrant weeds, all struggling fiercely for existence on the dry barren
soil, and filling the clear air with an incense-like perfume. Such is our
first acquaintance with the Costiera d'Amalfi, that wonderful stretch of
indented rocky coast-line once containing the Republic of Amalfi, which
was the forerunner of the glorious Commonwealths of Florence and Venice.
From the grey cliffs of Capri to the west, as far as the headland beside
Salerno, stretched this diminutive state, composed of a confederacy of
sister-cities, whereof Amalfi herself was the queen and metropolis. Its
glories have long vanished, but the Costiera d'Amalfi remains an enchanted
land, not only on account of its natural beauties, but also by reason of
its historical associations which give an additional charm to every breezy
headland and every little town upon this wonderful shore.

Below us, as we rapidly descend the slopes by the curves of the Corniche
road, lies the littl