CHAPTER XXV - PITIGLIANO AND SORANO

Summary

Nihil privatim, nihil publice stabile est; tam hominum, quam urbium, fata volvuatur.

Senca.

Ay, now am I in Arden: when I was at home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.

As You like it.

The places described in the last chapter lie within the Roman State. On the other side of the frontier is Pitigliano, an Etruscan site, and now the principal town in this part of Tuscany. The road to it from Valentano has already been mentioned. With a competent guide it may be reached also from Castro or Farnese, twelve miles distant; but woe to the traveller who would “take the track into his own hands.” Before leaving the Roman State, it would be well to have passports en règle, though he may never be questioned, “Whence or Whither?” Certain it is he will meet no doganiere at the frontier, which he will cross at a brook in a lonely wood. More likely would he be to encounter an unlicensed collector of taxes, for borderdistricts are proverbially unsafe, and this in particular is said to be the resort of outlaws from both States. Yet for the traveller's comfort, let me add that these are Will-o'-the-Wisp perils, ever distant when approached. The country here, however, is not suggestive of security, as it is peculiarly wild,—dense, gloomy woods, or open moors on every hand, and not a house by the wayside, save a farm on a green spot, about half-way to Pitigliano.