2. A source of inspiration
Artists, poets and scholars were inspired
by the extraordinary environment of
Caffrella. They found inspiration in athe
varying shades of feeling, in mythological,
Arcadian pleasure or in historical re-
enactment. They did scholarly research
but also fantastic reconstructions.
Just to quote a few.
 Du Perac in 16th century,
 Piranesi in 18th century,
 Goethe and Canova in the early 19th
century
 Chateaubriand Stendhal in19th century
 D’Annunzio in the late 19th century

3. Pilgrimages
This "artistic and literary
pilgrimage was particularly
intense from mid 18th until
the middle of 19th century,
when every cultured
European had to take at least
one trip to Italy, a country
rich testimonies of the
classical past (Greek and
Roman), of bucolic
landscapes and enlivened by
festivals, theatrical and
musical performances.

4. Piranesi
Piranesi, the Italian
architect, engraver, designer,
etcher and architectural
theorist, derived from the
huge ruins the nostalgic
feeling for an ideal,
immeasurably great, world
now lost and eroded. This
made him a precursor of the
Romantic sensibility

5. Lord Byron
Even Lord Byron was impressed by the
charm of this park ....
CXVI
“The mosses of thy fountain still are sprinkled
With thine Elysian water-drops; the face
Of thy cave-guarded spring with years unwrinkled,
Reflects the meek-eyed genius of the place,
Whose green, wild margin now no more erase
Art's works; nor must the delicate waters sleep,
Prison'd in marble -- bubbling from the base
Of the cleft statue, with a gentle leap
The rill runs o'er -- and round -- fern, flowers, and ivy creep,”
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto 4 –
(1812, 1816, 1818)

6. Goethe
He wrote: “Today I visited the Nymph
Egeria, then the Circus of Caracalla
the remains of the tombs along the
Appian Way and the tomb of Metella …
Those men worked for eternity, and had not
calculated all the madness of pests, before
Which everything must yield. “

7. Stendhal
Près de la grotte de la nymphe Égérie, c'est un
temple antique élevé probablement en l'honneur
des Muses: on détruisit le portique quand on le
changea en église. Sant_Urbano Promenades
dans Rome, III, 5 octobre 1828
L'église de Saint_Urbain, aussi à Rome, est un
autre monument de ces temps reculés. Il est
encore possible de distinguer sur les murs
quelques figures qui représentent des scènes
prises dans l'Évangile, dans la légende de saint
Urbain, et dans celle de sainte Cécilie. Comme
on ne trouve rien dans cet ouvrage qui rappelle la
manière des peintres qui, à cette époque,
florissaient à Constantinople, qu'en particulier
les têtes et les draperies sont traitées d'une façon
différente, il est naturel de l'attribuer au pinceau
italien. On y lit la date de 1011. Histoire de la
peinture en Italie

8. Stendhal
 Near the cave of the nymph Egeria, an ancient temple
probably built in honor of the Muses: the portico was
destroyed when it was changed into a church.
 The church of Saint Urbain, also in Rome, is another
monument of ancient times. It is still possible to
distinguish some figures on the walls depicting scenes
taken from the Gospel, in the legend of St. Urbain, and in
that of St. Cecilia. As there is nothing that recalls the style
of painters who at that time flourished in Constantinople,
especially in the heads and draperies treated differently, it
is natural to attribute them to the brush of an Italian
painter. You can read the date 1011.

9. Chateaubriand
« Ecoutez! la nymphe Egérie chante au bord de sa
fontaine; le rossignol se fait entendre dans la
vigne de l'hypogée des Scipions; la brise alanguie
de la Syrie nous apporte indolemment la senteur
des tubéreuses sauvages. Le palmier de la villa
abandonnée se balance à demi noyé dans
l'améthyste et l'azur des clartés phébéennes.
Mais toi, pâlie par les reflets de la candeur de
Diane, ô Cynthie, tu es mille fois plus gracieuse
que ce palmier. Les mânes de Délie, de Lalagé, de
Lydie, de Lesbie, d'Olympia posés sur des
corniches ébréchées, balbutient autour de toi des
paroles mystérieuses. Tes regards se croisent avec
ceux des étoiles et se mêlent à leurs rayons ».
Mémoires d'Outre-tombe, III L38 Chapitre 5
1er juin au soir, 1833

10. Chateaubriand
Listen! the nymph Egeria sings beside the fountain,
the nightingale is heard in the vineyard of the tomb of
Scipio, the languid breeze of Syria indolently brings
the scent of wild tubers. The palm of the abandoned
house is rocking, half embedded in the amethyst and
blue phebean lights. But thou, made pale by the
reflections the whute Diana, O Cynthia, you're a
thousand times more charming than this palm. The
manes of Delia, of Lalage, Lydia, of Lesbia, Olympia
placed on ledges chipped around you babble
mysterious words. Your eyes meet with those of stars
and mingle with their radiations.

11. D'Annunzio
Ma dove io ho veduto un tramonto maraviglioso è fuori porta San
Giovanni, nel luogo detto la Caffarella, presso la fonte e il bosco
di Egeria. C'è laggiù un ruscello sul quale si chinano e si
specchiano fiorellini innumerevoli. Ebbene, questo ruscello
s'accende tutto all'ora del tramonto, quasi fosse incandescente, e
gli alberi attorno hanno riflessi rossastri misteriosi, indefiniti. Si
fa un gran silenzio: sulle lontane colline si vedono passare come
visioni, grossi carri carichi di fieno, tirati da buoi,
lentissimamente. Il boschetto di Egeria rientra nell'ombra; e la
vecchia sorgente colando tranquillissima, canta sola in quella
immensità. Par di vedere la ninfa aggirarsi ancora tra le ombre
degli alberi, piangendo come un suono sommesso di acque
cadenti. Questa passeggiata alla Caffarella, di questi tempi, è
fatta da pochissime persone: qualche inglese superstite in cerca
di rovine, qualche pittore in cerca di motivi e di macchie, qualche
cacciatore in cerca d'allodole. I romani generalmente ignorano
queste bellezze delle loro campagne, e forse non le conosceranno
giammai; perchè davvero non sono per tutti.
LA TRIBUNA - (Anno III, n. 209, venerdì 31 luglio 1885)
Rubrica: La vita a Roma

12. D'Annunzio
“But where I saw a wonderful sunset is out of Porta San Giovanni,
in the place called the Caffarella, at the source and the wood of
Egeria. There is a stream on which many flowers stoop down and
are reflected. Well, the whole stream kindles at sunset, as if it
were glowing, and the trees have reddish, mysterious, undefined
reflections. There is so much silence. On the distant hills you can
see as a vision big wagons loaded of hay, slowly pulled by oxen,.
The grove of Egeria falls in the shadow, and the old source
ldrippling quietly, sings alone in the vastness. the nymph seem to
be still wandering among the shadows of the trees, crying like
the faint sound of falling water. This walk to Caffarella, these
days, is done by very few people: some British survivors in search
of ruins, some painters in search of patterns and spots, some
hunter sin search of skylarks. The Romans generally ignore these
beauties of their countryside, and perhaps hey do not even know
them, because they really are not for everyone”.

13. Cecilia Metella, di Enrico Coleman
http://www.caffarella.it/SitoMario/artlet/let_GT.htm