Salvator Rosa secretly deplored his banishment from Rome; and his
impatience at being separated from Carlo Rossi and some other of his
friends, was so great that he narrowly escaped losing his liberty to
obtain an interview with them. About three years after his arrival in
Florence, he took post-horses, and at midnight set off for Rome. Having
reached the gardens of the "Vigna Navicella," and bribed the custode to
lend them for a few hours, and otherwise to assist him, he dispatched a
circular billet to eighteen of his friends, supplicating them to give
him a rendezvous at the Navicella. Each believed that Salvator had
fallen into some new difficulty, which had obliged him to fly from
Florence, and all attended his summons. He received them at the head of
a well furnished table, embraced them with tenderness, feasted them
sumptuously, and then mounting his horse, returned to Florence before
his Roman persecutors or Tuscan friends were aware of his adventure.