It rises in the plane of a not unpleasant hill. The crown of the mountains, which seem to make it unhappy, might lead one to believe the opposite. The air is very healthy and therefore the inhabitants are of good health and good blood. Nor is it to be expected that Servio writes about it in Virgil (11).
The material grandeur of ancient Atina is also visible today from the remains of the ruined walls. The circuit of the first wall gives a surprising extent. It begins at the bridge, now ruined by the floods; it turns towards the ancient gate, which gives way to the Villa del Peschio, and to the hill known as Colle de’ Monumenti (Monument Hill) towards the ancient sepulchres, which stand there (1o). The same wall encircled the City with the Gate towards the Molarini River; leaving the bank of this stretched so far, that it gave the fourth Door called 'Porta del Sacco, which corresponded to the Knights’ Headquarters. He then went on the mountain known as S John at Jordan Valley, where the fifth gate was and today the road, which leads to the Monistero de’ Zoccolanti, which were previously inhabited by the Cassinese. The same gate was towards the same valley on the road of Gate, a narrow road (d) and well annoying. The seventh gate is finally observed, following the same wall above the ascent of the Tower to the Campo della Fontana.
They embellished the City of Atina the vast Temples, raised to the different Deities worshipped by the Gentiles. They are recalled by the Chronicle of Atina that of Saturn mentioned forwards, those of Janus (e), of Diana, of Jupiter, of Juno etc.
(d) It is such a naturally arranged path that Ladislaus, undone by the Angevins, with the relics of his troops, faced the victorious army there, to the point of driving it back: Ludovicus... ad nostrum Cancellum, ut inde exercitum traduceret, accessit; sed quia Ladislaus hunc aditum optime etiam munierat, et pauci transitum multis impedire poterant, cum per vallem valde arctam 4ooo pass. longitudinis altis montibus sectam natura, coeno, atque lapidibus impeditam, transeundum esset, ne copias periculo committeret, recessit, et Regnum dimisit. Palombo
(e) The Temple of Janus gave its name to the Selva piana, today Settignana: In the Villa, read in the Atinese Chronicle, quae sept. Jani vocabatur, non longe a Civitate, in qua idolum aureum, et argenteum eiusdem colebatur Jani. Nearby is said to be the Villa, where he rested Cicero in leaving for the exile he mentions Valerius Maximus Lib.I c. 5 saying: Urbe pulsus M. Cicero cum in Villa quadam campi Atinatis diversaretur etc. And Cicero himself mentions this in Lib I 28 de Divin. : Cum in alla fuga, he tells us, nobis gloriosa, Patriae calamitosa, in Villa quadam Campi Atinatis manerem etc.
