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distance may be about three miies, the road is in several parts shaded by peach, mulberry,
and mkoulier, or Celtic-Australia trees, which, added to the noise of the cigale, a
kind of grass-hopper peculiar to hot countries, announced my approach to the plains of
Italy. As I imperceptibly drew near the environs of Aosta. the valley gradually
widened, and this ancient city, which is seated in a kind of plain or basin, where several
valleys terminate, brought strongly to my remembrance Chamberry, the capital of Savoy
; yet not altogether from its situation, though, like the latter, on all sides surrounded
by lofty mountains, and built on the edge of a fruitful plain, watered by rivulets which
descend from the summit of the Alps, but more from the manner of roofing the houses,
which are mostly all covered with slate, and the incredible number of spires and towers
which rear their heads above the rest of the buildings.
The three principal valleys which terminate at Aosta are circumstanced as follows:
First, the one I have just described, which comes from the summit of the Great St. Bernard,
watered by the Butier in its whole length, which throws itself, near the city, into
the Doria Baltea, a river taking its source at the southern side of the basis of Mont-
Blanc. Secondly, the one which leads to the Little St. Bernard, a mountain which has
no connexion with the former, though of similar appellation, and one of the principal
passes from Italy to Savoy, thirty miles from Aosta. This vaUey is nearly watered
throughout by the above-mentioned river. And, thirdly, the one which conducts to the
city of Ivrea and the plains of Italy, which I shall hereafter describe, still watered by the
Doria Baltea, which runs into the Po, contiguous to Crescentino.
The city of Aosta, originally known by the name of Augusta Pralorium, or Pratoria,
is the capital of a duchy of the same name, which, though not extremely fertile, being
wedged in by the Alps, yet breeds vast quantities of cattle for the Piedmontese, to whom
the inhabitants also furnish butter, cheese, and wines, from their own fields and vineyards,
which are much esteemed. The people of the country speak both French and
Italian; but, as the duchy is situated at the eastern part of the Alps, and the Italian is
not only considered by them as the more general, but the more natural language of the
two, it is now considered as making a part of Piedmont, having belonged to the House
of Savoy for several centuries. Those who inhabit the high lands are, like the Vallaisans,
or indeed all mountaineers, strong, robust, healthy, and of pleasing physiognomy;
but the others, on the contrary, like the inhabitants of the Lower Valíais, are
weak and unhealthy, and many of them subject to goitrous appearances. Aosta is also
1 6 3
a bishop's see, and, before the revolution, was suffragan to that of Monetier, in the
Tarantaise, a province of Savoy. There is likewise a chapter and public college, where
the belles-lettres and other sciences are taught gratis, as at Lausanne, Vevay, See. besides
a multiplicity of churches and convents, as before noticed. The viaison-de^ille is
extremely ancient, but still worth seeing. The streets are wide, handsome, and regularly
watered, during the summer-months, by a spring from the Doria, which renders
the city not only pleasant and agreeable, but particularly healthy for the inhabitants,
during the intense heat, which, for a few months, is excessive, owing partly to its situation,
which is in a hollow, and partly to its latitude, which is only 45° 4.9', the longitude
being 7° 4'; as also, in some measure, to its small degree of elevation above the level of
the sea, which does not exceed eighteen hundred and sixty-six feet.
As this city was built by the Romans, after the entire subjugation of the Salassi by
Terentius Varrò, about the year 718 of Rome, and soon after a colony of three thousand
soldiers were sent hither, many Roman monuments still exist, some of which are wonderfully
well preserved. Among these may be counted a triumphal arch, an amphitheatre,
and two bridges, besides several other objects .similar to these. There have also
been dug up, in its vicinity, a number of Roman medals, gold, silver, and copper coins,
vases, lamps, sepulcral urns, &c. many of which have been conveyed to the Museum at
Turin. Though the distance from Aosta to the last-mentioned city does not, in reality,
exceed sixty-three miles, which, to an English reader, must appear a very inconsiderable
distance, yet is that distance not traveled in one day but with the utmost difficulty, in
great measure owing to the road being as yet scarcely practicable for carriages, and at
the same time crossing such a mountainous and m.seandering country, till it reaches Ivrea,
thirty-eight miles from Aosta, that traveling by post can, and must, only be deemed to
take place from hence. On the high road which leads to Piedmont, at no great
distance from Aosta, stands a beautiful triumphal arch, erected in honour of Augustus.
This noble monument, which is composed of large blocks of stone without cement,
very like a species of pudding-stone, or coarse-grained sand-stone, seems to have been
originally faced with marble, and ornamented with inscriptions and bass-reliefs, of
which it has since been divested. The valley, which is here tolerably wide and well
cultivated, tends in an eastern direction; and the mountains which screen it on both
sides, to judge by the loose fragments which lie contiguous to the road, and the continuation
or branchings of their roots, which meet in the centre or middle of the valley,
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