The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-05-16
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substance in the volcanic overflow.
Naples as a city did not appeal to
us very strongly. In fact, we were dis
appointed in it. There were alto
gether too many beggars and dirty
Italians to make it very pleasant
place to us. But of course we were
only in Naples for short time and
. would have to know it (Naples) bet
ter to feel with the writer who SAID
See Naples and then die
AS We left the harbor at Naples
we had good view of the base OF
Mt. Vesuvius, with a heavy cloud OF
smoke enveloping it's top. Before
dark we passed the island of Corsica,
the birthplace of Napoleon.
We arrived in Genoa about >
O'Clock the following morning and
after about three hours waiting we
got through the custom house. Genoa
as viewed from the boat was beautl-
full, but here also we were dlsap-
pointed at finding the streets narrow
and crooked. We took a drive over
the city of Genoa contains but little
Of historical interest. There is line
monument to Columbus near the
railway station.
At o'clock the same evening we
boarded the train for Milan, arriving
there about o'clock the same even
ing. The following day was spent in
Milan, which we found to be beau
tiful city with broad, clean streets
and beautiful buildings. We missed
here the element of Italian people
which in America we call "DagOes,
! n VI, ilh n or h.
ern Italy
Cathedral which is the third largest
= in the world. 1t is nearly 500 feet
long, 2SS feet wide, the height of the
nave is 1855 feet and the central spire
is $50 feet high. The exterior is
ornamented with 1000 statues and
SO Gothic towers. The interior of
the church with it's lofty ceilings and
huge pillars was impressive, the mar
BILE pillars being ten feet in diameter.
1t was begun in the thirteenth CEN
fury and is not yet fully completed.
The much worn stone floor tells it's
own story of the many feet that have
walked over it in the centuries it has
been in use
The main door of the cathedral is
of bronze and is believed to be the
greatest mass of worked bronze in
the world. 1t is SO large that it re-
'quires special hydraulic engine to
open and close it. This engine is
placed under the ground. The door
contains many bronze base reliefs,
decorated with precious stones, each
base relicfs representing a scene in
the life of the Virgin Mary
From the cathedral we went to an
old church built in the 14th CEN
fury which contains the original Of
Leonardo da Vincis picture of THE
Last Supper The figures in the
pictures are of magnificence with
out equal. The picture is painted
Oh the wall at one end of the Monks
Refractory belonging to the church
and has only with great difficulty
been preserved.
AS interesting as we found Milan
we had no more time to give it there
fore we boarded the train for Venice
! at one o'clock. 1t would be hard to
describe our journey from Milan to
Venice, on this bright sunny after
noon, across the Lombardy plains.
The farming land was very level and
l
it was occupied by fruit trees, the
ground between the trees being COW
cred with grass, resembling blue
grass, which at this season of the
year was still very green. Small
lakes rejecting the blue of an
Italian sky dotted the emerald green
while here and there could be seen
peasants with oxen teams tilling the
soil. Their houses were low struc-
lures of stone or cement and looked
as though they had seen many sea-
sons of wind and weather. Many
of them served as both house and
barn Judging from the curtained
front windows and the hay and other
food for stock which projected from
the open lofts at the back Of the
house. We passed several ruins of
forts built in such a way as to be
entirely surrounded by water in time
of a scige. AS a background to all
this we had the snow covered Apen-
nine mountains.
We reached Venice about nine
O'Clock at night and found the city
enveloped in a heavy fog therefore
we were not enabled to see it by ar
f; tificial light as we had hoped to do.
The following day however, dawned
bright and clear and we started out
early to see Venice.
! Venice is built on cluster OF is
lands in a lagoon Of the Adriatic sea.
The main thoroughfare is the grand
canal which divides the city into two
parts. There are 146 smaller canals
which form the minor streets.
These canals are crossed by 373
bridges and by means Of these
bridges, the narrow pavement in
front of some OF the houses and the
paths along the canals one could
walk from one end of Venice to the
other but for all ordinary purposes
OF travel and traffic the canal is the
highway and the gondola is the ve-
hicle.
This city with it's silently moving
gondolas was certainly pleasant
change from the noise and hurry Of
our modern cities. There arc some
larger boats on the canal mostly gas