The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-17
VLNETI-iN NOTES.

l Alps and from the foot of those gem of nature, the Italian lakes, stretching across the fertile plain of Lombardy | even to where Venice rises from tn, sea- a distance of nearly two hundred miles, that part of Italy is one vas vineyard and orchard.
 | For with the economical ideas of tho French, but little good land is wasted | and even between the rows of trees 1 grapevines are planted and now great punches of purple fruit hang ripenine l in the golden October sunshine. Italy is now at her best, for the days are pleasant and the nights cool; so the gay and festive mosquito is not quite the nuisance of a month ago. To the traveller who enters Italy at Como, coming from Switzerland over that triumph of engineering, the won derful St. Gotthard railway, the tran sition from ''the cold and frozen Alps to the sunny cline of Italy" Is somewhat startling, but none the less agreeable.
 The town of the four Italian lakes, Como, Lugano Maggiore and Garda, is one that it is hard to equal, and while
 
 Maggiore with the great terraced vine yards and the Borromean islands are very lovely, Lake Garda with the groves of olive trees, with their ashy gray foliage, the tall slender expresses, palm and fig trees and the curious shelters provided for the lemon trees presents an aspect that Is quite tropi- cal.
 When one has fingered at Milan, Ve- rona &c, and is tired of the regulation noises of a city, then Venice is hailed as the mecca of rest and yet of endless amusement,
 Not a wheeled vehicle of any sort is to be seen; even baby carriages are unknown; no trolley cars, no noise of any kind excepting the melody of the church bells, which seem to ring all the time, night and day.
 The novelty of going almost every where by gondola, the picturesque cos tunes of the gondollers and the con stantly changing panorama of the ca nals, all help to pass away the time too quickly, and when Venice is seen by the light of the full moon it is no wonder
 
 ly made it their home.
 The tired tripper" or the 'leisurely loiterly" alike are doubly fortunate in being here at this particular time. for on Sunday the king and queen made their first official visit to Venice, and will remain several days, and, as may we'll be imagined, there is much eX- citement of a pleasurable character, however, as they are both very popular.
 They came from Turin by special train, arriving about six o'clock Q740 Italian time), and at once the salute of twenty-one guns was fired from the Calico" a small man -ofwar lying at anchor in the Basin"
 The procession from the station to the palace, through tte Canal Grande," was a water pageant that no other city can present.
 Escorting the royal gondola were fif- teen large modern ones decorated most beautifully, and each manned by four dowers in livery to match, while the old state gondolas, with their red and gold hangings, gave an air of Ori- ental splendor to the scene. Following came several hundred of .he regulation black gondolas, with heir occupants cheering and waving heir hats and handkerchiefs. Notwithstanding their long and fa ,iguing journey the royal couple in a yery few minutes after their arrival at he palace came out on the balcony | overlooking the piazza and bowed re- ,eatedly to the assembled crowd. In the evening the grand old piazza | vas one mass of people, and it is said | leret is standing room for fifty thou and.
 At exactly eight o'clock the front of St. Marks, the clock tower and the were illuminated with red ire; the great city band began to play, nd in response to the cheers of the 'eople the king and queen appeared at heir balcony, and when the queen waved her handkerchief the enthus- sm was intense.
 Tonight the Basin from s, Maria clio Salute to the Public Gardens was
 small sea of red fire, and the gay arties in their gondolas listening to he "serenaders" was the scene closing
 ten days sojourn in Venice, which ill always be remembered with pleas re. H. F. SWEEZEY.
 
 DIrAr I-Cu, ArrJT DJIrnDn