Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1878-09-05
NOTES OF EUROPEAN TRAVEL.
Interesting Extracts from Private
Letters of Miss Kate NIiIlikan to
her Family.
MILAN, July goth, 1873.

road was ever on; but the dust, oh, my
Finally we came to the region of perpet-
ual snow, and all our party jumped out
but DR.. Lumis and myself. They snow
balled us numerically for while, then
sObered down and got in again. Just as
we came in sight of the Haspice, we all
got out, to gather peculiar flower that
grows there, and snowballing was again
the order of the day.
A very weary party were we, that mem
orable 18th of July, among the Alps, $500
feet up in the sky, with peaks fully 1000
feet higher all around. Underneath an
immense snow-drift were the head waters
of the LicenO, rippling and murmuring.
Further on were drifts fully forty feet
deep, spanning yawning chasms. We
went fifty miles that day, through blind
ing dust, and the grandest scenery of all
the pass.
At Biasea we took the railway and went
on, through Bellenzona to Locarno-the
loveliest of ftowns-embowered in groves
of orange and eitron trees. The hotel is
in beautiful yard filled with flowers
hydrangias, heliotropes, geraneums, etc.
The magnOlias filed the house with their
perfume. They presented each of us
with bunch of heliotropes before leav-
ing the hotel. Then we took the boat for
Aroma. How can tell you on paper, with
prosaic pen and ink, of the loveliness of
Lake Maggiore? Overhead the blue sky,
everywhere, the purple peaks, faint and
far off; or nearer, green with groves of
lemon trees, and terrace beyond terrace
of vines. Then we came to the Simplon
pass and here are the Barromean Isles,
arising greenly from the blue waves of
Lake Maggiore, with terrace beyond ter
race of vines, rare flowers, oranges, lem
ons, citrons-everything that we prize
grew here freely. Isola Bella was Eden
with the apple-tree left out) its marble
terraces, twined with rare vines; marble
statuaFy cleaning through the glossy
green leaves, its grottOes and fountains,
and it's chateau, filled with the rarest of
pictures-whO would not love to live in
Isela Bella-Island of the Beautiful? !?
We landed at Aroma, the southern ter
minus of the lake; went to a restaurant,
and had an Italian dinner. The first
thing learned in Italy was, that thew cook
fish just as they catch them, heads, tails,
scales and all.
When we left AriOle cherries were just
beginning to ripen. Here we haYe plums,
peaches, pears, oranges, and new nuts
with the green husks on them. The
peaches are as juicy as oranges with us,
and the oranges as dry as apples, and the
rind peels off line banana.
We have very pleasant rooms here, in
an enormous hotel, built all around a
courtyard. The horses drive in at an
arched. opening; the people alight and go
in at hall door, while the coachman
drives across the courtyard and puts up
his horses in the stable on the opposite
side. My room faces the hall door, and
being on the second floor, is just over the
stable. We went this evening to the ice
cream saloon. 1t is a building covering
about two squares, with the streets rooted
over with glass in an arch, and set with
gas-iets a yard apart. 1 never before saw
such place. 1t was as lovely as a dream !;
truly, this is a lovely city. The shops
and buildings far surpass anything in
Cincinnati. The display is equal to New
York, but the buildings are finer. The
Milanese ladies are dressed in the height
of the Partisan fashion, but they cling
fondly to their national head-dress-a
three-cornered lace shawl thrown over
the head and caught back by black-headed
pins. It is very graceful, and much more
sensible than our expensive bonnets. You
do not see millinery stores here, but in
stead are the most elegant assortments of
laces and fans. The woman are pretty,
an undeniable fact, too; saw SO many
lovely black-eyed beauties, out taking an
airing in carriages, dressed in pale pink
or blue silk, with white lace over-dresses,
and the inevitable black lace head-dress
The men dress just like anybody else
you cannot tell what nationality they are
except by noticing their excessive polite
ness. They have their hats in their hands
about two-thirds of the time.
VENICE, July 23.-The road from Milan
to Venice lay through great many wall.
ed towns, and the whole distance has beer
the scene of desperate conflicts, victories
: and defeats ever since chroniclers begaI
= to keep time. The mountains were Otter
close at hand, then far off, pink in thu
E Edistance. l saw the castles of the Mon
tagues and Capulets; the Romeo and Ju
a liet of Shakespeare. They were on ad
:, joining hills in plain sight of each other
y Lake Garcia was almost as lovely as lax
BIaggiOre, and that is saying great deal
It It was here the battle of Solferino wa
e fought in '59. From Verona the field
q are covered with mulberry trees, plante
at regular distances from each other, an
j. to these grapevines are trained and fes
l. tooned from one tree to another. l count
II ed sometimes as many as five festoon
!. from one branch to another. We crosse
l. the Lagoon OH bridge two miles Ion
rt and rode into the city. The depot is o
D. the Grand Canal, and our omnibus DIR
t, yer was there waiting for us and we a
got into the water-buss; cannot call
le an omnibus, for that goes on four wheel
r. whereas ours was propelled by five row
IN ers. The houses of Venice all look
re if they had been under the sea since I'll
es year one, and only just arose again, an
f. had not yet got the mud, slime and ru
off of them. We went a long way throug
the Grand canal, and then took our wa
through labyrinth of alleys SO narrO
pe that two gondolas could scarcely pas
m and finally emerged in awide open spa
Mt and halted at the hotel landing.
al The first thing that you notice here
oe the number of dogs; not grand, sensib
EST Newfoundland dogs, but little, yelpil
he poodles, with their bodies shaved, all b
lss their heads, ears, tips of their tails, and
be fringe around their ankles. Eeverybo,
&C. men, women and children-have dos