Travels in Central Italy or a Lenten journey from Florence to Camerino, Macerata, etc

Chapter II

From Arezzo to CittS. di Castello — The Cerfone— Monterchi — Valley of the Tiber — First appearance of Citta di Castello — The ViteUi — Days of Prosperity aud Days of Decay in Italy— The Cannouiera 14

Chapter III

Other Vitelli Palaces— Earthquake in Citta di Castello — Paolo ViteUi, the Architect — Remarkable Picture — Neglected Gardens — Remarkable Frescoes of Gherardi— Pliny's Villa— Wine of the Valley of the Tiber — Its Qualities — Italian Local Historians — Their Scarceness — Their Value — Those of Citta di Castello — Specimens of Municipal Records 29

Chapter IV

Route from Cittii di Castello to Gubbio— Difficulties— Valley of the Tiber from Cittk di Castello to Fratta — Ferry of the Tiber— Fratta —New Road to Gubbio — Picture at Fratta by Signorelli — Monastery of Monte Corona— Legislation respecting the Regular Clergy in Umbria — Pepoli — Civitella Raineri — Subterranean Passage — Difficulties of the new Road — Specimen of Italian Character — Valley of the Assino— Solitary Monastery— Castello di Danuo— Well-Head of the River Assino 44,

Chapter V

Position of Gubbio— Hotel there— Italian Innkeeping— Au Italian Reception—Monte Calvo — Palazzo Pubblico — Former Population of the City — Curious Anecdote— How the Dynasty of Montefeltro became Lords of Gubbio 59

Chapter VI

The residence of the Dukes of Urbino at Gubbio — The Duke's Cabinet — The Palace of the Municipality — Destroyed Loggia — Mauro Sarti's Description of the Palazzo Pubblico — Cost of the Building- Public Library— Remains of a Roman Theatre — The "Bottaccione " — Aqueduct— Soulage Collection—" Momo Nicchi '* — Statue by Maestro Giorgio — Pictures at Gubbio— Picture by Damiani— Fresco by Nelli— Local Historians— Italian Society VI CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER VH. Eoute from Gubbio to Perugia— Limits of the ancient Picenurn— No Guide to be had— Yaliugegno— Frattieciola, a Robber Town— Approaching to Perugia— Political Changes— Perugia deserted by Travellers, and Why— An Italian Juryman— The Fortress after the Expulsion of the Papal Government — Its Demolition — Former Prisoner— The Swiss in the Benedictine Convent— Political Feeling — Old Carbonaro — Curious Anecdote, showing the Isolation of the Papal Provinces from one another 101 CHAPTER VIH.

Drive to Assisi— St. Francis— the Great Convent — The Church Services —Sermon by one of theFriars— Scene in the Church— Bell of Santa Lucia— The great Refectory— The Kitchen— The No Library— Tbe Ambulatories — Excursion to Le Carceri— Mountain Subasio — Convent at the Carceri— The Superior— Legends 115

CHAPTER IX.

From Assisi to Foligno — Basin of Assisi — Spelto — Foligno — Making Bargains at Inns— Foligno to Camerino — Belfiore — Scopoli— Colllorito— Serravelle — District of Camerino — Situation of the City — Theatrical Ciceroni— "Wanderings in Search of a Rare Book — Ravages of Earthquake at Camerino— Palace of the Varani— Wealth ofthe City under their Rule— Decadence under the Papal Government— History of the Varani — Dennistouu's Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino— Passages from the History of the Varani — Fratricide, and Extermination ofthe Family— Escape and Adventures of Giulio Cesare Varani — A good Aunt— Tbe Chiavelli Family at Fabriano — Second Escape of Giulio — Finally murdered by Cesare Borgia— Religious Experiences of Camilla Varani— Beauty of the Camerino "Women— Quotation from a Poem of the Fifteenth Century ou this Subject— Legend of St. Ansinus— History of Camerino, by Camillo Lilli 126

CHAPTER X.

Route from Camerino— Castle of Varano— Origin of the Family— Tolentino— Mediæval politics— Remarkable report to Alexander the Sixth— The;Accorambini Family— A Sentence on Treason— St, Nicholas— Castello di Raneia— Great Battle in 1815 157

CHAPTER XI.

Macerata — Its Points of Similitude and Contrast to Camerino — Origin of Macerata — Its Mediæval History— Prosperity — Terraces around the Walls— Views from them— Divisions and Hatreds between City and City— Literary Quarrels— Remarkable one between Macerata and Camerino— Origin and Progress of the Dispute— Real bitterness of feeling attending such Disputations— Macerata and Recanati— Origiu of Ricina— Work of Fra Brandimarte — Absenteeism CONTENTS. V_i PAGE at Macerata— Brick Palaces— Bramaute's Church of La Madonna Delle Vergini — Enormous Ball Court — Probable Future Destiny of Macerata 171

CHAPTER XII.

Route from Macerata to Fermo— Montolmo— Pausulæ— Difficulty of assigning Localities to the Names of destroyed Cities — Ancient Picenian Cities built in the Plain— St. Giusto— Curious Treaty between a number of Picenian Cities — Monte Granaro — St. Elpidio— Lete Morta — Turnpikes v. Non-Turnpikes — Difficulty of distinguishing these Hill-towns from each other — Long Ascent to Fermo — The Streets of the City — The Appearance of it from without the Walls — Dalmatia visible from Fermo— Situation of the Cathedral 186

CHAPTER XIII.

Expressions of Fermo— The Picturesque v. the Prosperous — Deteriorated Aspect of the Country— Wealth of the Church at Fermo — Its proportion to that of the Country in General — Inn at Fermo —A Brigiiud Host and Hostess— Clean Sheets and Garlic— Architectural Features of the City— The Cathedral and the " Girone * — Former Military Importance of the Spot — Tyrants in Fermo — Destruction of the Castle — Tura da Imola — The Euffreducci Family— Oliveronto Euffreducci— His Story, as moralized by Macchiavelli— Ludovico Euffreducci— His Death Scene— Papal Rule in Fermo— The three Martyrs of Fermo— A Story of Papal Justice ... CHAPTER XTV. From Fermo to Loretto— Porto di Fermo— Why no Fish are to be had at Fermo— Unattractive Coast Scenery— Soil brought down by 'the Rivers— Railway Works— Sites of Ancient Cities— CupraMarittima — Cluentum— Potenza— St. Elpidio — Brandimarte's Work on Picenurn— The Hill of Loreto — Legend of the Santa Casa— Dalmatians at the Shrine of Loreto— Belies in the Legend 223

CHAPTER XV.

Commencement of the Religion of the Santa Casa, St. Francis di Assisi, at Loreto — St. Carlo Borromeo at Loreto — First Church built there — Second Church— Third Church built by Guiliano da Maiano— Altered by Picconi da St. Gallo — Little to admire in the Church as it now is, except the Sculptures enclosing the Santa Casa itself — Measures of the Santa Casa — Description of the Interior— Mode of blessing Articles— Santa Scodella— The officiating Priest— The Treasury— Robbery of it by the French— Its present Contents- Majolica Vases — Main Industry of the town of Loreto — An Esprit Fort— Battle of Castel Fidardo took place under the eyes of the Canons of Loreto CONTENTS. PAGE 203

CHAPTER XVI.

Recanati— Its Situation— Aud Form— A mad gallop thither— sYppearance of Recanati within the walls — Curious ancient Law — Former History, and political Constitutiou— Montefano, and its direct subjection to the Holy See— Ughelli's Libel on Recanati— Typographical Enterprise at Recanati in these days — The " Great Rebellion " at Recanati— Specimen of a Papal Bull in the fifteenth century — Remarkable charge of Idolatry — Friar Andrew and his Fortunes— Crusade against Recanati — Terrible Fate of the City — Return to Loreto

CHAPTER XVII.

From Loreto to Osimo— Position of Osimo— Classical Authors who mention it— Besieged by Belisarius — Maintained its Independence — Its resistance to the Popes— Succeeds in causing its Fortress to be destroyed — The Citizens take cognizance of the disorders of a nunnery; and succeed in having it abolished— The Cathedral of Osimo— Remarkable series of portraits— Storm of wind at Osimo — Walk round the walls — From Osimo to Ancona — Monte Conero —Position of Ancona— Apparent discrepancy between Strabo and Pomponius Mela — Entrance to Ancona — First Impressions made by the City— Contrast between it and the Cities around it— Inconvenience of the " Free Port " — Memorial of an Inquiry — The Cathedral— Its Situation— Its Dangers from the Encroachments ofthe Sea— Military strength of Ancona— The Port 277

CHAPTER XVIII.

From Ancona to Rimini by rail— Rimini to San Marino — Difficulty of the Journey— Position of the Town — Its Elevation — Means of reaching it— Appearance of the Town on approaching it— Life at San Marino— Postal Arrangements— Territory of the Republic— The " Borgo "—Ascent thence to the City— Manufacture of Gunpowder — Of Playing-cards— Solitude of the Town— Its Aspect- Church— "Water Supply— The Fortress — Its Guardian— Its Position — Ancient Name of San Marino — View from the Fortress — Inmates of it— Administration of Justice— Meeting of the Council — Sunrise Visit to the Castle— Knocking up the City — Sunrise from the Castle Battlements— Coast of Dalmatia— Preservation of its Independence by San Marino— Return to Rimini— Thence to Florence— Conclusion

Chapter I

1NTKODUCTOBY. There is no square mile of Italian soil, that does not merit our curiosity and examination. It may possibly be said, in reply, that the same remark may be made of the entirety of the earth's surface. And if the objector be as much interested in the facts and annals of Nature as in those of the human race, it would be perhaps difficult to gainsay him. But at all events, and especially with reference to all that man has done and has been on earth, the above assertion is true of Italy to a degree far superior to that in which the same may be said of any other portion of the globe. And a very cursory reflection on the part, or rather on the various successive parts that Italy has played in the history of the world, will suffice to show how and why this should be the case. The soil is rich in different strata of memorials and reminiscences superimposed one on the other, as they have been deposited by the diverse human tide-streams which have passed over B it, after the manner of geological successions in the formation of the crust of the globe.

That part of this strangely-storied land with which these pages are concerned, has witnessed the rise and progress of at least four different social systems and widely-differing civilizations, — the Etruscan, the Ro man, the Mediæval, the Modern. And although it may seem to us that the two latter are divided and distinguished from each other by a less well-marked boundary line, than that which to our eyes wholly cuts off each of the two older civilizations from that which succeeded it, it is probable that this seeming is only due to the greater remoteness of the time and our consequent smaller knowledge of the details of its history. It may be well believed, that the Roman civilization was quite as largely a debtor to the Etrus can, and the Christian Mediæval to the Pagan Roman, as was that which arose at the period of the, some what misleadingly so called, renaissance, to the life of the centuries which preceded it.

During two at least of these four periods, the first that is to say, and the third, the districts visited in the journey here described were among the most cultivated, the most socially and artistically important, and in every respect the most interesting of Italv. But they have not hitherto received from travellers a fairly proportioned share of attention. No land was ever visited by nearly so great a number of foreign travellers as Italy ; yet no European country, not even Spain, has remained so wholly unknown and neglected in certain parts. No stream of foreign travel ever flowed in so undeviating a channel as that of the visitors from the northern side of the Alps INTRODUCTORY. 3 to Rome and Naples, unless perhaps that of the caravan of the faithful to Mecca. Generation after generation the thousands come every year, and all tread with the utmost exactitude in the footsteps of their predecessors.

The French and Russians do not look to the right or the left as they pass on their way to the great capitals. The English and the Americans do look out to right and left as they journey along the beaten track, and see as much as can be seen by such means. But they very rarely do much more than this. The reasons why this should be so are very obvious. The great objects of an Italian journey, Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, are so paramount, and so sufficient in themselves to occupy all the time, that the great bulk of pleasure-travellers can give to their tour, that this cause alone has ensured the neglect of objects of secondary interest. But the mere force of routine, and the sheep-like tendency men have to follow, nose to tail, their path through the gap made by those who have gone before them, has perhaps contributed still more to the result.

And the habit of course tends to perpetuate itself. The more wheels pass in the same ruts, the deeper the ruts become ; and the deeper the ruts, the more difficult is it, and the more decided the effort required, to pull the coach out of them and find a new track. And in Italian travel these well-worn ruts consist of every kind of facility provided, and preparation made for moving on in the wonted path, together with the absence of all such facilities for the adoption of any other, making the difficulty of doing so appear the greater by contrast. It is difficult for any b one who has not tried it, to imagine the amount of active resistance requisite for the quitting of these deep old ruts, and warring against the prescription which ordains that they shall be followed. Every body with whom the traveller comes in contact, from his banker in one of the great capitals, to the horse boy who stands loitering ready to lend confirmatory testimony to the horse-master's assertion, that this or that route is impracticable, is in a conspiracy to force him into the beaten track.

Everybody in his own sphere and line has made his preparations for forwarding the traveller along the accustomed track. The banker has his correspondents in the capitals in their due order, the innkeeper his ca'-me-ca'-thee friends in the towns along the route ; the postmaster his relays at the appointed stations; the vetturino his wonted stopping-houses along the road. And all the reasons with which each of these per sons assails you in favour of keeping to the old ways are by no means fictitious and void of foundation. Travel in Italy out of the beaten track is, and to a far greater degree has hitherto been, a very different thing from travel in it. For very many generations, foreign and mainly English travellers have passed through Italy by means of a system of appliances and facilities organized and kept up for their special be hoof ; and of course this system is confined to the great lines, trodden smooth by the annual stampedo of northern travellers.

The extraordinary perfection to which this system has been brought is evidenced in a curious manner by the complete separation of the mass of foreign travellers from the life around them. An Englishman, especially one of station INTRODUCTORY. 5 and wealth, passes from one end of Italy to the other, without having come in contact with genuine Italian life at any one point in his career. All that he uses, all that he eats, all that he drinks, is provided expressly for him. All who minister to his wants, from the English physician who understands northern consti tutions, to the laundress broken in to British methods in the getting up of linen, — are there expressly to serve him differently from the manner in which the natives of the country are served in similar matters, and to prevent him from coming into real contact with the ordinary Italian world around him.

And all this does tend to make travelling easy and luxurious ; and although those who provide it all, of course estimate the necessity of it far more highly than those for whom it is provided, yet the sudden absence of it all, as soon as the beaten track is left, does tend to keep the wheels in the old ruts. But all this is rather descriptive of what has been the case hitherto, than of what will be the case hence forward. The rapid progress which is being made in the amelioration of the means of internal com munication in Italy is daily making access to districts hitherto rarely visited by foreigners more easy ; and, what is contributing, perhaps, still more powerfully to the same result, the great increased facility of reaching Italy is very rapidly increasing the number of English visitors to the southern side of the Alps, and bringing thither a large class of travellers, of a kind less likely to submit to the ordinances of routine in the direction of their movements.

Englishmen, it is true, have for some years past been, with more or less success, rebelling against these prescriptions and vested interests. And perhaps as much may be said of the increasing crowd of American travellers. The Russians are exclusively persons of rank and wealth, who come to drive handsome carriages and horses in fashionable malls, to give and frequent balls, and be seen in opera-boxes. The French, of whatever class, seem to care for nothing but the large cities. Seeing Italy means with those of higher station among them, frequenting the drawing-rooms of diplomates and the houses of the very restricted number of native nobles in the habit of receiving foreigners ; and is understood, by those of a less distinguished class, to be accomplished by haunting the cafes and theatres.

And accordingly they write and print, when they return to Paris, " spropositi," as gross as those to which we are so accustomed in the works of French visitors to England. As for the Germans, they contribute very few to the yearly crowd of travellers ; and those few are for the most part men with some special object in view, — very generally men of science or of learning, bound on some errand of inquiry or investigation. And your German bent on such an object is not the man to be stopped by any want of horses or fear of bad inns, or other minor inconveniences. If there be in some remote and very inaccessible mountain townlet among the Apennines any neglected and almost unknown vestige of antiquity or memorial illustrative of any one of the bygone centuries, it is probable that the only extant account of it may be found in a mono graph, printed on whitey-brown paper, at the 1000th page of the 99th volume of the memoirs of some third-class German university city.

German travel- INTRODUCTORY. 7 lers certainly cannot be accused of seeking their ease by servilely following in the beaten track. And Englishmen have manifested a sufficient amount of impatience at being confined to it, to justify the hope that, for the future, they will not be content to hmit their acquaintance with Italy to the leading capitals, and the main routes that lead to them. Some little amount of inconvenience must be en countered at first, mainly in the kitchen department. Italy is not the land of good eating, nor of good cooks. The temperate, sober, and thrifty habits of the people lead them, especially when travelling, which is always a disagreeable necessity, and never a pleasure to them, to be content with very frugal fare at their inns ; and the traveller who is persuaded to follow the route I am about to recommend to him, may perhaps find the journey rather a lente7i one in another sense than that intended by the title I have prefixed to my volume.

Decent lodging and clean beds he will find throughout the district. And the means and facilities for locomotion will be carefully noted, as we proceed on our way. It was not, as I have said, by way of any allusion to the meagreness of fare to be expected from the Umbrian hostelries, that I have called this a Lenten journey ; but from the time of year at which it was made, and at which any one who may be induced to follow the same route may conveniently and advan tageously do so. It is true the following* pages are the result of more than one visit to the districts in question. But the most recent and most complete tour through them was made during the Lent of the year 1862 ; and, flattering myself that any traveller purposing to go over the same ground would find his path made easier for him and his time saved by the use of this volume, I think that the forty days of Lent would be found sufficient for the object in view ; supposing, that is to say, the starting-point to be that of the present writer, — Florence, or any other not much more distant city.

In general, the early spring is a very pleasant time for travelling in Italy. It is true that you have oidy twelve hours of light ; but they are all available and enjoyable; which is not the case in the longer days of summer, and the early autumn. Then, for those who have been spending the winter in Italy, the time is convenient also in other respects. The winter gaieties and the carnival fun are over in the cities ; and the stranger has probably had fully enough, for the present at least, of balls and concerts, and galleries and studios, and city life in general. Those, who are driven to the southern side of the Alps by the rigour of a northern winter, dare not yet return to face March winds at home ; and for those nomad tribes, who will be found spending the summer months in dalliance at some Mediterranean sea side bathing place, or favourite resort among the valleys of the Apennines, the time for that dolce farniente has not yet come. * What then, under such circumstances, can the fortunate possessor of a few weeks' leisure, health, and a very moderate rouleau of Napoleons, do better than spend the first and third, while increasing the second of these possessions, in adding to his real knowledge of Italy, by a ramble through a little visited though highly interesting part of it.

INTRODUCTORY. 9 Orsu ! Andiamo ! The start may be made — from Florence, we will suppose — m the most impromptu and unpremeditated manner. No need to trouble oneself about pass ports, or any such obsolete impediments. There are no frontiers to be passed, thank Heaven ! We may be off on the morrow of an overnight decision, to make the trip. There is a diligence at 6 a.m. to Arezzo, which will be the best mode of commencing the route ; nay, there are two starting from two rival offices within an hundred yards of each other, just behind the Palazzo Vecchio ; anda place will be sure to be found in one or the other of them. They are not very diligent diligences, it must be confessed ; taking nine hours — from 6 a.m. till 3 p.m. — with a bit over to do the distance, — some forty English miles. And it is provoking, that the bitter rivalry which exists between them, never by any chance exhibits itself in stimulating either of them to pass the other on the road, or to see the slightest grati fication or credit in arriving first at the journey's end.

The drive from Florence to Arezzo is quite sufficiently pleasant and interesting to make patience during the loitering journey an easy virtue, and the composition of a chapter or two on the details of it a not difficult task. Nevertheless, I do not purpose attempting it. The author of " Un voyage autour de ma Cham bre," would have written a charming book full of suggestive matter on a journey from London to Highgate. But as I have no pretension to emulate any such tour deforce, I do not mean to dwell on the details of the route from Florence to Arezzo, which is almost equally beaten ground. Not that there is no temptation to do otherwise. There was the magnificent sunrise view over the Valdarno and queen-like Florence in the midst of it, from the top of that spur of the Chianti Hills, so celebrated by Redi, which the road reaches about nine miles from the city gate.

There is the grand old Rinuccini Villa, Torre a Poni, with its immense terraces and cypress groves, a little beyond the crest of the hill ; Rinuccini no longer, — that fine old name having become extinct a few years since, and this portion of the property having passed to the Corsini, in the person of the last Rinuccini's son-in-law, that much lamented Marchese Lajatico, who died in London, when on an ernbassyfrom the Provisional Government, which succeeded that of the late Grand Duke. There are things untold as yet in any guide-book or tourist's volume, to be written of this historical villa, the earliest records of which date from the year 1072.* Then again, it was market-day as we passed through the thriving little country town of Figline ; and the large market-place was thronged with a crowd of Upper Valdarno Tuscan faces, of a charac teristically different type from those of the city race of Florentine cockneys.

The political sentiments of these country-bred Tuscans too, as expressed in in scriptions in colossal letters on every available inch of wall, of " Abasso il Papa Re .'" — " Down with the Pope King ! " — were worth noting. * V. Ricordi storici della Faaiiglia Rinuccini Di G. Aiazzi. p. 30. Firenze, 1840. INTRODUCTORY. 11 At St. Giovanni again, a few miles further, there is that wonderful mummied figure, discovered some half a century since, built up in the wall of the church. This strange spectacle has, in all probability, been made booty of by some former tourist. But has he or she solved the mystery ? How did the dead find so strange a tomb, implying so fearfully strange a fate ? I think some documents, throwing light at least of probability on the matter, might be found. Then we come to Montevarchi, where some three hundred years ago, Benedetto Varchi, the historian, was beneficed.

Does not that entitle one to say something — and how much might well be said ? — of the genial, simple-minded, honest, Montaigne-like old writer ? But still I refrain. Arezzo itself, though half the yearly tourist-tide flowing Rome-wards has slept there for generations past, is full of temptations. Half the tide, I say, because the other half always went the other road by Sienna. And recently, since the rail has brought the latter city to within three hours from Florence, a far larger portion than half have taken that route. So much so, that I find the great inn at Arezzo, once one of the best in Italy, is no more ! He, who would now rest him in the little upland city of Tarlati, the fighting bishop, who bearded the Republic of Florence, of Vasari, and of jolly Redi, the medico poet, author of the " Bacco in Toscana," must now content him with such an hostelry as contents Italian travellers.

The above-mentioned worthies are but a very few among the citizens of Arezzo who have achieved fame in one walk or another. The inhabitants maintain that there is something in the air especially favourable to the sharpening of the wits. And the good people seem bent on proving the truth of their theory by making the most of their celebri ties. Never was saying so notably contradicted, as is at Arezzo that of a prophet being honourless in his own country. The whole city is full of marble tablets, drawing the attention of strangers to the fact, that in this, that, and the other house, lived and died some celebrated poet, philosopher, or warrior. The practice, which is an excellent and laudable one, may be observed at Florence, and in other Italian cities ; but nowhere is it so prominent a feature in the aspect of the place as at Arezzo ; evidently, the Aretini would say, because in no other city have there been so many men worthy of commemoration !

But perhaps, as others might hint, because a slenderer amount of celebrity has sufficed to merit such honour at the hands of the Aretini. It must be admitted that some of the great captains and poets so recorded , will in all probability be thus heard of for the first time by most people ; as for instance, a certain general — I already have forgotten his name — who is thus in troduced to the notice of the passing stranger by a remarkably voyant slab of marble in the main street, now called the " Corso Vittorio Emanuele : " " Here lived and died the terror of the Turks ! " But not even the desire to introduce this terrible notability to the British public, nor the singularly interesting records contained in a small publication entitled " The Public Calamities of Arezzo," which I found in my inn, and in which, on opening it at hazard, I read : " In this year many dogs went mad in Arezzo !

" — not any of all these interesting INTRODUCTORY. 13 matters shall induce me to break my determination of beginning this Lenten journey from the time of quitting the beaten track of English travellers ; and this was on starting from Arezzo for Citta di Castello.

Chapter II. Prom Arezzo To Citta DI Castello

— THE CERFONE — MONTER- CHI — VALLEY OP THE TIBER — FIRST APPEARANCE OP CITTA PI CASTELLO — THE VITELLI — DAYS OP PROSPERITY AND DAYS OF DECAY IN ITALY — THE CANONNIERA. All the world, playing at " follow-my-leader," as is the world's custom, goes on its appointed way, the second stage of its route from Florence to Rome, following the post-road from .krezzo to Perugia. We — I and my companion, that is to say — went forth from the former city by a far less used gate directly facing the mountains, which, as soon as we had cross ed the small extent of flat and fertile fields lying around the knoll crowned by Arezzo, we began at once to climb. They are outlying spurs of the Apennines, buttresses of the main range, which seems to have more need of buttresses than any other of the great mountain systems of Europe, — so friable is the soil, and so rapidly is it being carried away to form along the coasts of the Adriatic and Tuscan seas, first malaria-smitten Maremme and swamps, and then in Nature's good time, rich, corn-bearing alluvial plains like that now around Pisa.