St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-10-31
Letters from Europe.
ITALY, October |.

| TALL, OClODeT L.
My Dear Sir:
| On account of the reports of the heat
drouth, and dust in Italy, we made
haste slowly towards it. The last night
before we reached the Italian lakes
brought the hoped-for heavy rains that
extended as far south as Florence
washed away the accumulated filth Of
the weeks and months preceding, and
revived the dropping verdure of the
hills and plains. These lakes are cradled
among the southern ridges of the Alps
There are four of considerable size. Oh
these we crossed three. We came in
sight of Lake MaggiOre (the Verbanus
of the ROmans) at Baveno, where i'm
mense quantities of a fine granite are
Quarried, and sent over all Italy. The
finest modern church at Rome, St
Paul's, has one hundred monolithic pill
lars, each over fifty feet high and five
feet in diameter, obtained from this
place. Skirting the shore of the lake
southwark four or five miles, we al
Stresa take boat which calls at all the
principal villages on each side. We
first touch at IsOla Bella, one of the
celebrated Borromean islands. Origi-
nally desolate, barren rock, it was in
the seventeenth century, occupied by a
magnificent villa erected by count Bor-
romeo. He imported soil, built terraces
rising one above another 100 feet above
the lake, stocked them with the finest
plants, and decorated the whole with
fountains, statues, and mosaics. 1t was
second Hanging Gardens, rivalling in
splendor, if not in size, those of Queen
Semiramis of Babylon. Pallanza, Intra
Laveno, and other smaller ports we see
from the steamer and, after three hours
sail northward, disembark at Luino and
take carriage for a three hours ride tC
LuganO, on the northern shore of a lake
of the same name where we spend the
night.
Here in this drive we pass from
Italy into Switzerland again. For tho
Swiss canton of Ticino stretches dowr
into Italy like the point of wedge
But the people, as among all the south
ern valleys of the Alps, are thoroughly
Italian. In the morning we stroll along
the narrow streets bordered with ar.
cades. Here, out-Of-doors, shaded by
the arches, the shOp-keepers display
their goods, the fruit woman knits by
her stand, and the shoemaker, an(
harness-maker, and timer, work a
portable benches in the very street. A
butcher is dressing a calf at the door O
the market, that for once, at least, the
people may know he has fresh meat
The shoes, however, worn hereabout.
are mostly wooden, very like the Woo
of skate, with block heel added ant
straps to fasten them to the feet. How
they clatter over the stony ways!
An hour by water across the nortl
arm of this lake and we are at Porlezza
whence in two hours by carriage, W,
drive to Menaggio on Lake Como. Ol
the road we pass miserable little inn
labeled American Hotel. What
wretched device we exclaim. On,
might as well try to catch customer
by palming off rock salt for diamonds
Even Dakota miner would bardI,
patrOnize such a hovel. From the tol
of the ridge three miles above the lake
we have a fine view of this, the love
liest of Italian waters, and its surround
ings. 1t is thirty miles long, is nowher
more than three miles wide, has tw,
arms southwark like an inverted Y. an,
is, except at the very extremities, en-
tirely environed by mountains from tw,
to eight thousand feet in height. The,
are green to the very top, and there i
but narrow strip of level, if any, be
meath them at the waters edge. Ye
every mile or two there is village
between them villas with fine gardens
and, behind, terraces rising steeply on
above another crowned with vineyard