"In my judgment, the figure," said the Critic, "is tolerably good, though rather
Etrurian, but the expression of the face is decidedly Tuscan, and therefore false to nature.
Among the most amusing chapters here is "Milton's Visit to Vallombrosa." Milton mentions the place in Book I of Paradise Lost, when he describes the fallen angels, "who lay intrans't / Thick as Autumnal Leaves that strow the Brooks / In Vallombrosa, where
Etrurian shades / High overarch't imbowr" (ll.
From the pre-historic Italian people to the Greeks, from the Phoenicians to the Latins, from the
Etrurian to the Roman period, from the crisis of the empire to the first barbaric invasions: ancient Italy in all its splendor documented in a single great series.