The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-05-23
FINE WHEELING IN ITALY.
BEA UTIFUL COUNTRY, PICTUR- ESOUE TOWNS IND INTERESTING
 GALLERIES.


 Blue Skies and sunshinc-The Roads
 ing That the Cyclist Doesn't Mind
 Their Frank Curiosity.
 There could be no more striking con- trast than when, after having pushed up from a bleak Alpine valley to the top of one of the high passes the cy- clist coasts swiftly down among the vineyards and mulberries and corn- fields of Italy, says the Queen. For this reason, ride into the country, if you can, from Switzerland or the Ty- rol, and begin your journey with the tour around the Italian lakes. Either the Simplon, the San Bernardino or the St. Gotthard Is beautiful approach to Maggiore; by the San Bernardino and the St. Gotthard the descent may also be made to Lugano; the Splugen, the Maloja and the Stelvio all lead to Como; while over the Brenner, one of the favorites passes in old das. is the route for Garda.
 
 lakes you are continually crossing the frontier and riding from Italy into Switzerland and back again. You must therefore be prepared to satisfy the demands of both the Swiss and Italian custom houses. But it is the simpler now, since this ear the same special ticket, with your photograph attached, and filled up with descrip-
 
 ion of our bicycle, to be obtained from the Cclists Touring club, admits you free i'll both countries. The member ship ticket of the Touring club de France also gives you the right of free entry, no matter at what point ou may travel into Italy. If you do not belong to one of the touring clubs you will have to deposit duty on entering the country and go through the nuisance of retaining it on leaving. The Ital- ian officials, if you arrive on your wheel and can show your ticket, are al- was considerate and make the formal ities as easy as possible
 Some of the best Italian highways are in the north, in the lake region, and of all the lakes Como is the finest from the cycling point of view. The road, most excellent in places, if only passable in others, keeps almost close to the shore and runs all round 1t, though there are two short stretches on the western bank from Argeguo to Tremezzo and again from Menaggio to Dongo, so bad as to be hardly worth riding over. ffl if ff1ff1flf1
 A FINE ROAD.
 On the easern, or less popular side popular, that is, with the tourist-from Colico, at the head of the lake, to Va renna, there are about eighteen kilo- meters of as good going as you could get anywhere, even in France, except at the end of the summer after long drought, when the surface is apt to be loose; while the entire distance from Colico to Lecco, forty kilometers, the road is so marvelously engineered, you are astonished that it's fame should be almost wholly local It goes tunnel l ing through the rocks if by so doing it | can avoid an unnecessary climb and certainly it is no less a triumph of en- gineering skill than the Axenstrasse, though not half, not quarter so we'll | known.
 There Is not much riding about Lu- gano; you find but fragments of road | here and there on he banks: and it is | only on the western shores of Mag | giore, from Aroma to Locarno about | eighty-one kilometers, that there is a continuous highway. But there are charming little runs, mostly level, through pretty green valleys, connect ing all these lakes. From Aroma or Gravellona ou can cycle over to the lit tie Lago dOrta; from Menaggio to | Porlezza, at the head of Lake Lugano, it is very easy going and from Lave no, on the eastern side of Maggiore there is another and extremely pretty but rather hilly, ride to Varese and it's lake; and on to the town of Como where, unless ou mean to extend your journey very much further south, you may make complete circular tour by wheeling the forty-four kilometers to Milan, setting out across the plain of Lombardy for Verona and starting homeward by Garda and over the Brenner pass There Is nothing love- Her in Italy than this ride.
 The regulation sights-that .is out side of Milan and Verona--are few, an occasional church, an occasional pie ture. that is all: but the lakes with their succession of gardens and ter races, of villas and little arcaded towns and cid castles, are a never-ending sight. For a scorcher a day would be more than enough to spare to each lake, but he cyclist who rides for pleas ure will think a fortnight all too short for the tour.
 An Enchanting Ride
 Or, if you are in no special hurry. from Milan you can strike southward by Placenza, Parma, Modena, Bologna, over the Apennines, by Pistoia, to Florence, about three hundred and fif- ty kilometers, an enchanting ride beautiful scenery, wonderful old towns, and everywhere the vineyards and ol- ives, the expresses and stone pines of /, the south. And from Florence, by way of Siena, Montepulciano, Cortona, Pc rugia, Assist, Spoleto, there is another tour, no less enchanting, to be made to , Rome. There is a shorter route, from Flor :. snce, by Arezzo, to Perugia, and then r through the same towns to Rome three / hundred and fifty-two kilometers, but | ! he longer js the more deIpbtful ,pba