146 Route 10. LA CAVA. Environs
giore, similar to S. Stefano in Rome. The basin in the centre
is surrounded by 8 granite columns, enclosed by a circular pas¬
sage with 16 pairs of handsome pillars of pavonazetto with forh
capitals, all antique. The walls are decorated with frescoes ic
the 14th cent.
Beyond S. Clemente the line ascends considerably. On emer¬
ging from a cutting the train enters a charming valley and reaches
La Cava (Londra), a favourite summer resort of Neapolitans
and strangers, a town consisting of a long street with arcades, as
at Bologna. On a wooded eminence in the neighbourhood rises
the celebrated Benedictine monastery La Trinita della Cava,
founded in 1025 by Waimar III., a Lombard prince of Salerno,
but condemned to dissolution. (At the adjoining village of Corpo
di Cava is the comfortable, though rustic, *inn of Michele Sca-
polatiello; pension 5 L). This delightful and salubrious valley is
admirably adapted for a summer retreat. The church (at the en¬
trance two ancient sarcophagi) contains the tombs of the first
abbot S. Alferius, of queen Sibylla, wife of Roger, who died at
Salerno, and of several anti-popes, among whom Gregory VIII.
The organ is one of the best in Italy. The archives of the
monastery (generally accessible in the forenoon only) are of great
value and contain a number of important documents on parch¬
ment in uninterrupted succession; the catalogue comprises 8 vols.
Among the valuable MSS. are the Codex Legum Longobardorum
of 1004, a prayer-book with miniatures, of the school of Fra An-
gelico da Fiesole, the Latin Biblia Vulgata of the 7th cent. etc.
'Corpo di Cava (see above) may be visited in the course of an after¬
noon, but one or more days may most agreeably be spent in this vicinity.
From the station the ascent occupies 1 hr.; donkey 11., there and back
V\21.; there is also a carriage road. From the station the traveller
proceeds to the 1. into the town and follows the main-street as far as the
Piazza with the church and large fountain in front of it (at the corner to
the r. the "Cafe d'Halia). By the church the road ascends to the 1. and is
followed, without regard to the diverging paths, for 5 min. Then, when
it turns to the r., the shorter path ascends to the 1. by a church. The
latter ascends between walls, past the red painted tobacco manufactory, to
S. Giuseppe, a church with a few houses. Here the road, which goes to
the r., is quitted and the path to the 1. followed. It descends, crosses a
ravine (beyond the bridge a small church to the 1.) and again gradually
ascends, commanding a view of the village to the r. For a time the path
is enclosed by- walls, but a view is soon obtained of the valley of La Cava
to the 1. and, higher up, of the Bay of Salerno. In '(a hr. (from S. Giuseppe)
the church of Pietra Santa is attained (so called from a rock in front of
the high altar, on which the pope sat in 1816) whence a fine view is
obtained of the mountain slopes of Cava, studded with numerous white
houses, and the Bay of Salerno to the r. In the narrow valley about
20 mills are propelled by the brook. The tall, round, slender toiyers
on tlie hills about Cava are destined for the capture of wild pigeons in
October.
From Pietra Santa the wood is skirted for 8 min. and the high road
reached, which soon afterwards crosses the viaduct to Corpo di Cava. Here
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