Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXVII. Summer
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we fetch the sphinx at once, where was it now?
I said it was lying under the ruins of the forgotten
villa of a Roman Emperor somewhere on the
mainland. It had been lying waiting for me
there for two thousand years. A man in a red
mantle had told me all about it the first time I
looked out over the sea from the very spot where
we now stood, so far I had only seen it in my
dreams. I looked down on the little white yacht
on the Marina under my feet and said I was
quite sure I would find the sphinx at the right
time. The difficulty would be to bring it across
the sea, it was in fact far too heavy a cargo for
my boat, it was all of granite and weighed I
did not know how many tons. Mastro Nicola
scratched his head and wondered who was going
to drag it up to San Michele? He and I of course.
The two small Roman rooms under the chapel
were still full of débris from the fallen ceiling
but the walls were intact to a man’s height, the
garlands of flowers and the dancing nymphs on
the red intonaco looked as though they had been
painted yesterday.
“Roba di Timberio?” asked Mastro Nicola.
“No,” said I looking attentively at the delicate
pattern of the mosaic floor with its dainty border
of vine leaves of nero antico, “this floor was made
before his time, it dates from Augustus. The
old emperor was also a great lover of Capri, he
started building a villa here, God knows where,
but he died at Nola on his return to Rome before
it was finished. He was a great man and a great
Emperor but, mark my word, Tiberius was the
greatest of them all.”
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