This is a selection (pages 40-47) from the book "Illustrated Excursions in Italy", a diary written by Edward Lear in 1843 during his travels to the Center and South of Italy. The book was published in London by Thomas Lean, 26 Haymarket, in 1846 (MDCCCXLVI).  In aristocratic english fashion, Lear finds much to complain about, while at the same time giving us a history lesson that is notable for its detail.

 August 4, 1843. A particularly horrid day, with no one redeeming quality, beauty, or novelty, to note down as a white mark in our journal: a mud-coloured sirocco atmosphere, whereby one felt as if in an air-pump; a burning sun to boot, and a long toil over a most wearisome country!

 A rocky pass took us from the uninteresting valley of Villa Santa Lucia to the vicinity of Rocca Calascio, (a little cluster of dwellings, four thousand eight hundred Paris feet' above the level of the sea,) and thence through Calascio, a long straggling town, also on a mountain-ridge of great elevation, along whose steep sides of barren ugliness we continued to toil ad infinitum, till we were half blind from scorching heat and dullness. As for me, I walked all day, not being able to keep awake on my horse. 

At Rocca San Stefano, a helpless-looking town, sticking against a mournfully bare hill-side, some respectable people hailed us from a large house near the road, and insisted on our refreshing ourselves and horses; so I should not have said that the day was destitute of its white mark. These good people regaled us with biscuits and Limonata, and pressed us very much to stay; but we preferred spinning out our disagreeable thread all at once: so down we went, and up and down again, all hideousness and sirocco, to Barisciano, whence, to make bad worse, we had to follow the high-road to Aquila, twelve or fourteen miles of dust, and ineffable stupidity.  

Indeed, I was mightily disappointed in the Valley of Aquila, which, although full of cultivation, (more particularly of almond-trees,) is of so great a width as to be more like  a plain ; and its sides are enclosed by bleak, bare mountains, not very striking in form, though grand from their loftiness. Aquila itself, once so important a city, and yet holding its place as capital of the province of Abruzzo Ulteriore Secondo, stands on an eminence commanding the whole of the valley, and allowing a passage only for the river Aterno between its base and the mountains on one side. To this hill you ascend by slow windings; and, when the city was in its palmy days, it must have had an imposing appearance. Even now, the Castle overlooking all, the Cupola of San Bernardino, with various Campanili and Palazzi of a delicate-coloured stone, throw an air of magnificence over the first approach.

 It would be difficult to enter the precincts of Aquila without feelings of interest and curiosity. The scene of factious dissension during the times of Guelph and Ghibelline, and for centuries, one of the most important cities in southern Italy, "E' l'Aquila" says Porzio,' who wrote in the fifteenth century, " città degli Abruzzi fra altissimi monti posta, e dalle rovine de' luoghi convicini tanto cresciuta, che di uomini, di armi, e di richezze era la prima deputata dopo Napoli." The cold look of desertion in its well-paved streets struck us forcibly as we passed through them; and we acknowledged that its title, " la Roma degli Abruzzi," was well merited by its character of departed grandeur,-its fine palaces, gloomy and uninhabited its splendid convents and churches, and its extensive walls enclosing vine-yards where once were flourishing quarters of the town. A scanty population, and the total absence of  bastle in so large a place, increased its resemblance to the eternal city and this melancholy magnificence is well supported by the harsh line of mountains, unadorned with vegetation, that bounds the view on every side. Aquila, however, can boast of one advantage unknown to its more prosperous fellow-city Chieti, namely, a really good inn. "Il Sole" might do credit to any place in southern Europe, and in its spacious chambers we were right glad to repose.

Most authorities agree that Aquila was founded by Conrad in 1254:  some antiquarians make the Emperor Frederic II. its first originator; while others affirm it to have been an existing city in the time of the Lombards, and only enlarged by Frederic. All agree that the union of the fugitive population of the ancient cities of Amiternum, Forcona, Foruli, etc., whose sites are in its immediate neighbourhood, was the first cause of the rise of the modern city: nor does the well-established fact of Conrad having granted it privileges, etc. at all preclude its having had an existence long previously. Its name is most frequently supposed to be an allusion to the Imperial Eagle, under whose support it was first brought into power, as a check to the Roman Pontiffs, on the very borders of their dominions. 

In spite of its Ghibelline origin, Aquila seems early to have become a partisan of the opposite faction.; and it was destroyed by Manfred, and set up again by the Popes accordingly.  It was stedfast to King Charles I. of Anjou during, and long after, the endeavour of Corradino to regain the kingdom; yet we read of its having formed itself into a republic under one Nicola dell' Isola about 1281, which state of things seems to have continued until Nicola was poisoned by some of the nobles, whose oppression he had controlled. Nicola dell' Isola seems to have been an extraordinary man; for two envoys, sent by King Charles II. (one his own son) to punish the offender, returned to Naples with a full conviction of the integrity of his conduct: a persuasion, however, which may have been not a little enforced by the champion of Aquila himself at the head of his six thousand men. 

The city was constantly torn by internal dissensions during the interregnum of the Popes, and the absence of Charles II. in 1292 ; but peace and order reigned, for once, during the short time that Pope Celestine V. wore the tiara, during which lie resided in Aquila. The early part of the reign of Robert I. was also a period of comparative quiet, always excepting the burnings and killings which occupied the Aquilani among themselves. In 1299 and 1315, the city is recorded to have been almost totally destroyed by earthquakes ; and as soon as it was rebuilt, with greater splendour and strength, the unquiet Aquilani were again at their old work of destruction among the rival towns near them, for which delinquencies heavy fines were imposed upon them. In 1210 and 1227, King Robert resided in Aquila in great state and magnificence, receiving ambassadors, etc.  

The family of the Camponeschi seem at this time to have possessed the chief power in the city ; and pages full of contention and turbulence, through which their name stands prominent, may be read in Bernardino Cirillo's annals of his native place. " Surse in Aquila," says Porzio, "la famiglia de' Camponeschi, potente tanto che quasi ne avea preso il Principato: e quando i Re' di Napoli volevano dalla città alcuna cosa ottenere, era loro il mestiere guadagnar prima i Camponeschi." Throughout the long reign of Giovanna I. the history of Aquila is little but a variety of horrors. After the murder of her husband Andrea, the factions of the Queen (who had married Louis of Taranto), and of Louis of Hungary, her late husband's brother, divided the whole kingdom; and Aquila was besieged by Carlo of Durazzo for two months, during which it was held out by Lallo Camponeschi for Louis.  

On the flight of the Queen from Italy, Lalle was made Grand Chamberlain of the whole kingdom by Louis, and must have been a man of no mean talent; for on the return of Giovanna, and the consequent change of fortune which befell the adherents of Louis of Hungary, Lalle Camponeschi not only contrived to retain his great influence but his office at the Neapolitan Court. Meanwhile the terrible plague and famine of 1248 devastated Aquila, and swept off one-third of its inhabitants; and in the following year so fatal an earthquake destroyed the city, that the remaining population deserted its ruins, and were only persuaded to rebuild it by the all-powerful Lalle Camponeschi, who did not long survive these events, being stabbed in 1354 by a follower of Filippo of Taranto, then Governor of the Abruzzi for Giovanna. In 1355 the city was placed under an interdict by Innocent VI. for rebellion; and one grows weary of reading of the contentions of two Kings and two Popes, the Durazzo and Anjou factions, interdicts, excommunications and rebellions, and earthquakes. In 1264 another pestilence carried off more than ten thousand of the inhabitants of Aquila and its history, till the murder of Giovanna I. in 1381, and through the remainder of the fourteenth century, is one tissue of rebellion and internal discord, in which the Camponeschi seem, as usual, to have been the principal actors. 

The Aquilani declared for Queen Giovanna II. on her deposition by Pope Martin V. in 1419, and, in consequence, suffered a siege of thirteen months from the partisans of Louis III. of Anjou; during which the city held out against the celebrated leader, Braccio Fortone, who was killed beneath the walls in 1424. After the death of Giovanna II., until 1441, when Alfonso conquered the whole of the kingdom, and when there was a short interval of quiet, discord seems to have claimed Aquila as her favourite abode. Rebellions in 1460, the war of the Barons in 1484, the expedition of Charles VIII. of France (for whom the Aquilani openly declared), are among the principal events affecting Aquila until the possession of the Regno by the Spanish dynasty; events each fraught with years of disturbance and misery. 

In 1528 this restless city rebelled against the authority of the Emperor Charles V., and was fined one hundred and twenty thousand scudi by Philibert Prince of Orange, who built the castle now commanding the whole city, and, it is said, levied farther exactions to the amount of above three hundred thousand dollars. 

During the rest of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries Aquila seems to have been fast sinking to that secondary position which it now holds: nor is it worth while to record more of its history in detail. 

In 1708 a most fearful earthquake occurred throughout the Abruzzi, from the 14th to the 21st of January, and a great part of Aquila was again reduced to ruins.  Two thousand four hundred persons flattened by the falling of houses in the city alone, and great numbers were wounded; above twenty thousand persons perished within the province. 

After this weary list of plague, famine, earthquake, oppression,  internal discord, and rebellion, one wonders rather to see Aquila as flourishing as it now is, than that it should not be more so. Nor has the history of centuries brought wisdom to the inhabitants of this unfortunate city; for it is but a very few years ago that fresh conspiracies and disturbances provoked the anger of the Government, and were the cause of several of its noblest palaces being at this day tenantless. Thus much by way of history of Aquila the fallen. 

The Intendente or Governor of Aquila, to whom we had a letter of introduction, was at the Baths of Antrodoco, for the benefit of his health so we occupied our afternoon in a stroll about the city, which afforded plenty of amusement in the variety of bits of Gothic architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; doors, windows, etc. etc. presenting themselves at every step. Few towns, indeed, possess more interesting studies for an architect.  

The quiet loneliness of the place had also its charms for us; and we returned with favourable impressions of Aquila to our inn, close to whose gate stands the Tower of Margaret of Austria's palace.

In passing through several of the streets we were struck by the harmonious singing or chanting of the workmen-blacksmiths and others at their labour.

August 5, 1843. We devoted the morning to visiting churches, etc. but of the buildings of Aquila I shall say little; partly, because to describe them would require the pen of an architect, and because many of the principal edifices are already known to the public by the Hon. K. Craven's Tour. The Church of Santa Maria di Collemaggio is highly interesting, and as remarkable for the beauty of its architectural details as for the whimsical appearance of its principal front, which is formed of red and white marble so arranged as to have rather the look of Chinese workmanship. The date of its erection is about 1260, but the interior is entirely modernized; though on the walls there are some very beautiful frescoes, representing the life of San Benedetto, each compartment containing several animals finely executed.

The situation of Santa Maria di Collemaggio is very striking: it stands alone at a short distance from the city, overlooking the wild vale of Aquila, with the pale peaks of Monte Corno shining against the dark-blue condition; and the mind involuntarily recurred, in contrast, to the coronation of Pope Celestine, in 1294, and the two hundred thousand spectators of that scene of pomp.

We set off late to Antrodoco. On looking back, there is a fine general view of the position of the city; hut the spreading hill of Aquila was soon shut out, as the road wound among barren mountains. Civita Thomasa (perhaps the ancient Foruli) was on our nght, but the short-ness of our time prevented our making any departures from the beaten track. The whole line of road up the pass, at the top of which is a wretched little village called Rocca di Corno, disappointed us, as we had heard exaggerated accounts of its general character: it is certainly greatly inferior in grandeur and beauty to many passes in Cumberland, until, from a turn in the road (where a very picturesque Chapel, called the Madonna delle Grotte, look's down the pass), the valley suddenly narrows and becomes at every step of a more wild character.  

Hence you go down by a most zig-zag route (supposed to represent a carriage-road) to the valley, where the torrent, whose course you have been accompanying, joins the river Velino, and where it has pleased the founders of Antrodoco to place their town, mainly because it is protected by a rock. the castle on which commands three formidable passes. From the last few turns of the spiral descent, where a vast rock overhangs the road, there is a very grand new of the town at the foot of immense and gloomy hills; but it was so nearly dark on our arrival that we could only gaze with awe into the solemn abyss, where an indistinct mass of towers and roofs was alone discernible. Antrodoco was the ancient Interocrea, a station on the Via Salara: of its modern history I know little, except that it was destroyed by the people of Aquila in 1804, in one of their frantic expeditions. 

A very vile Osteria was the only place we could discover as a night's lodging, and a sorry stable for our horses; so we bemoaned ourselves accordingly, the more that two very wooden-looking slices of ham and one egg were all we could get for supper. "Mangiono tutto i bagnanti," quoth the host: "i bagnanti" being the bathers, or invalids, who resort to the mineral waters of Antrodoco, and fill the town for a short summer-season, during which these unwonted lodgers consume all the food in the market...