EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CARRIAGES
another to Puzzolo; both which are comprehended in the five to be spent at Naples. Thus the whole journey is perform'd in fifteen days; on the last of which they return to Rome."
The German Keysler finds fault with the price and the length of time required for the journey: "In travelling from Rome to Naples it is very inconvenient to go with the vetturini; for though the road they take lies over Monte Cassino, and consequently gives one an opportunity of seeing the celebrated Benedictine monastery on that hill; yet it is attended with the mortification of being five days on the road and paying the vetturini an extraordinary price for their loss of time.[1] In the months of February and March a person must be very expeditious to travel seven stages in a post-chaise from sun-rising to sunset; but in summer the seventeen stages and a half between Rome and Naples are easily performed in two days. For the two chaise-horses at every stage within the Neapolitan territories, one pays eleven carlini, and half as much for the chaise, if wanted."[2]
In place of going with a vetturino, "It is more advisable," says Nugent, "to make use of the procaccio[3] or ordinary carrier from Rome to Naples, with whom they may agree for seven crowns, for which he gives them seven meals, and carries them thither in five days. Those who chuse the first method with the vetturino are obliged to come back the same way they went, which is not so agreeable to a curious traveller. But gentlemen who have not agreed with the carrier may in their return leave the direct road and travel further within land, on the right side of it, hiring horses from town to town. With the vetturino from Rome to Naples, you pay five crowns a horse, fifteen for a calash, and eighteen for a litter. The road is generally bad, and the accommodations none of the best."[4]
Obviously, the satisfaction of a traveler who went with a vetturino would largely depend upon the fairness and honesty of the conductor. An unscrupulous fellow had it in his power to cause the traveler great annoyance and
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