Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-04-17
MISS JAMES WRITES
FROM ROME, ITALY,
OF NAPLES VISIT

Miss Winifred James of Daven-
port, who is engaged in after-war
construction work and IS located
at Rome, Italy. writes an interest
ing letter to her cousin. Mrs. Mar
garet Cox Ct Ia Ioline, in which
She relates her yeriences in Wis
iting Vesuvius ard Pompeii In
speaking of her return trip home
she says: Il am not really anx-
ious to go back through Paris, for
conditions there are so unsettled
and France is so crowded that trav-
cling is far from pleasant. 1t is
bad enough here. We will undoubt-
edly sail from Genoa when we go
and will stop at Gibraltar, so that
il. will be a very interesting trip.
1t looks now as though 1 would be
back in Davenport before the sum
mer is over-I hope in July some
time But things happen very sud
denly here and one never knows
just. when they viii have to hit
the trail"
Of her experiences at Naples she
says:
Several weeks ago my roommate
and I had a chance to go to Naples
over the weekend. We left Rome
on Friday morning and reached
Naples at 5 o'clock. There was
Nesuvius away to one side and the
blue bay on the other, just as we
have seen in the pictures. The
next morning we attached our
selves to a Y party and went to
ssPompeii, wandering through the
..rN TOD
so long, and trying to realize that
It was all true and that we were
not dreaming
We left the party at noon and
drove to Sorrento, about five miles
down the bay, and it was certainly
a glorious ride, in spite of the fact
that we were in a crazy little two
wheeled cart drawn by a very
frisky horse. The road follows the
bay all the way to Sorrento, and it
was Joy Just to look at the blue
water, Naples and Vesuvius in the
distance, orange and olive groves,
and snow-capped hills around US.
At Sorrento we took a small mail
steamer for the island of Capri,
the most enchanting place in the
world. We were unfortunate the
next day, for the sun refused to
shine for us and we had to wander
around the little village of Capri
in the mist and rain, and the drive
to Anacapri over a road which
winds back and forth, and around
and around the mountain, with |
what must have been a heavenly |
view out over the bay and sea on
clear days, was tantalizing, for We
realized how beautiful it would |
have been had the sun been shin !
ing
1--WE got up early the next morn |
ing to take the mail steamer back |
to Naples and had a rather excit--i
ing time landing from the small |
boat onto the steamer, for the bay !
was very rough. In fact, lots of
the passengers were sick on the |
way to Naples, but 1t didn't bother
US at all You see, we crossed the |
Atlantic last fall without being sick
one minute, so we feel safe Pride |
goeth before a fall, however, and !
it's no telling what we may exper-
fence when we cross the Atlantic .
again.
'That afternoon after getting |
back to Naples we went up Vesu- |
vius again with a Y party, which |
included soldiers OF all nations. |
The funicular railroad up to Vesu- !
vius literally pulls you up by the |
hair of your head, and it was an !
Experience l do not care to repeat, /
though l wouldn't have missed it |
for the world When We reached |
the top the wind was blowing a |
gale and it seemed as if We were |
on the rim of the world, for the |
mountain on one side and the era
ter on the other left only a small
path on which to walk, and the
wind almost took US off our feet
several times and blew the fumes
and smoke from the crater in our
faces. The soldiers all wished for
their gas masks, and the wind was
80 bad that we couldn't go down
into the crater, as people usually
DO. but we saw enough to satisfy
as. OF course, the panorama spread
nut before US was wonderful, the
eitv- of Naples, the bay of Sorrento,
pompeii, Castellamare, and the is
Il 9e-Fn