The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-09-10
A Pen Picture from Italy.

La Sierra confirms its name. 1t is a
sort of inside lock to the. interior of the
Pistoian Apennines, midway between
Pescia and Pistoia, directly back of the
mineral springs of Mount Carini, the
whiom Saratoga of Tuscany. The
great provincial road crossing the
mountains from Pistoia to Boscolungo,
the Engadine of this regioli, has branch
from Pescia that passes in sight of this
little town to the east, and connects with
it by rude branch road. Deep, pre-
cipitous gulches, thickly planted with
chestnut trees, and mostly stone
tcrraced from top to bottom i'll narrow
platforms, like immense steps, devoted
to grain and potatoes surround the
place, except at the northeast. Here a
narrow ridge extending from series of
gracefully rounded, highly cultivated
hills, stretches toward the high cone of
land in which Sierra is built, itself a
natural strong place commanding the
valleys that run from the Pisan Plains to
the heart of the Apennines.
Rising abruptly as the houses do out
of rich setting of deep green and yell
low vegetation, layer on layer of strong
masonry, with small embrasures for win
dows, bright, red-tied roofs, closely built,
following the steep Irregularities of the
hilltop, its ancient church and lofty
watch-tower rising high above all, spring
ing from the remains of his medieval cas-
tie, La Sierra is the most conspicuous and
picturesque object hereabouts. A paved
roadway, doubling on itself, leads steep
ly up to the massive gateway which opens
under the tower, and conducts to the
tiny square forming the heart of the cit
adcl, on which the old Lombard Church
fronts. Externally, this hamlet of five
hundred souls presents an irregular,
closely-knit mass Of weather-stained and
herb-spotted buildings, holding fast to
one another in mutual support lest they
should slip from their eyrie into the gulf
below. The skill with which every inch
of foothold has been turned to account,
each building a buttress and protecting
wall for its neignbor, the whole town
looking as if it were the solid outgrowth
of the rock itself, rising cut Of its richly
colored bed of vegetation, with its sharp,
clear-cut outlines against the bluest of
skies, whose horizon is pierced by the SER
rated tops of the more distant mountains
that form the lovely basin in the center
of which La Sierra watchfully sits, COM
pletes the harmony of a landscape not
easily matched even in a land so prodi-
gal of natural and artistic beauty as
Italy.
An inside view has a more sombre as
pcct. In it's anatomy, like all the coun-
try towns of Italy, it. apes the city
structure. The mean alleys that do duty
as streets are so narrow that lovers might
kiss or scratch across them from the
loop-hole windows. They straggle about,
up and down, crooking in and out in a
toperi-h, brcak-neck fashion, often ending
a cul-de-sacs or dismal tunnels, passing
under the houses, the receptacles of a
century's litter, with glimpses of blue
sky beyond, or bit of precipice, for
which the archcd way forms a frame as
for picture. But in the pure air, that
which in a moist climate speedily be-
comes revolving squalor and garbage, in
here innocuous, and not seldom adds to
the variety of the picturesque ensemble
Nature is on such friendly terms with
art as to condone, perhaps good
naturcdly, the social vices of the popula.
ton, and to encourage the general want
of thrift, the dirt, and untidiness to
which the so-called artistic races are par.
.icularly prone. TO please herself, she
makes some people aesthetic without theil
knowing it, and they keep themselves
brutishIy dirty in habits without discov-
ering it themselves.