Of these he writes an account to Cardinal Colonna.
"I went to Baiae," he says, "with my friends, Barbato and Barrilli.
Everything concurred to render this jaunt agreeable--good company, the beauty of the scenes, and my extreme weariness of the city I had quitted.

This climate, which, as far as I can judge, must be insupportable in summer, is delightful in winter.

I was rejoiced to behold places described by Virgil, and, what is more surprising, by Homer before him.

I have seen the Lucrine lake, famous for its fine oysters; the lake Avernus, with water as black as pitch, and fishes of the same colour swimming in it; marshes formed by the standing waters of Acheron, and the mountain whose roots go down to hell.

The terrible aspect of this place, the thick shades with which it is covered by a surrounding wood, and the pestilent odour which this water exhales, characterize it very justly as the Tartarus of the poets.