The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-01-21

CNId III VSFOU&s
almost inch by inch, especially its great
church, which is jewel without and
within.
Milan is today halfway house for
people rushing up and down the earth,
from the Mediterranean to the Alps,
from Venice to Como; 1t is so very
well known, so very crowded, so busy,
so bustling, one feels there is nothing
more to be told of her Perhaps be-
cause she seems so entirely modern,
because she bears so few traces Of her
earlier years, because while her SIS
ter cities point so proudly to Etruscan,
to Greek, to early Roman remains, she
invites the visitor to contemplate her
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, one feels
she does not appreciate her past.
Beautiful Lake Como.
Milan cannot hold anyone long who
remembers that Lake Como is but two
short hours away, with open-air pic
lures far lovelier than any that Milan's
rich museums hold. The little town
of the name at the southern end of
the lake is quaint enough; it has a
charming cathedral; it looks straight
up to the snowpeaks, but 1t is not
place to linger; choose rather some
quieter place farther up the lake
Cadennabia, Menaggio. Bellagio.
When people speak of the Italian
lakes 1t is usually Como and its neigh
bors that are meant Como, which is
all Italian; Lugano, which is largely
Swiss, and Maggiore, which Is largely
Italian; but there are others, very tiny
perhaps, but also lovely; Orta, Varese,
and to the east Iseo, Tdro; above ALL.
beautiful Lake Garda, whose upper
end was Austrian. Which is the love-
Hest? Who knows2 Undoubtedly
Lake Como is the most popular. And
does any visitor fail to row across It's
blue, satiny surfaces to the marble
steps Of the Villa Carlotta to see the
Thorwaldsen Frieze and Canova's
Cupid and Psyche?
Lugano is quite a different lake
from Como, although so near-but a
single rocky ridge. an outlying spur Of
the great Alpine chain between. 1t Is
wonderfully picturesque, with its
steep, wooded sides and quaint towns,
pink and yellow and mauye, staged
upward from the lake-like galleries at
theater. If there are fewer luxuri-
GUS villas, fewer over-rich gardens,
there is more of romantic naturaIness.
Lake Maggiore is almost as well
known, as much travelled, as Como.
Its individuality Is just as strong as
that of the other two; to see one is
by no means to see all.
verona's Palaces and Art.
To the della Scalas Verona owes
most Of her great palaces, much Of her
art, half of her fame. The tiny ladder
Of their crest tscala means a LADDER,
the swallow-tail decorations Of their
architecture, are found today In cities
far distant from Verona in Brescia,
Parma, Lucca, far up Lake Garda and
In Tyrol- for under the greatest Of
them. Can Grande |, the state was the
largest that medieval north Italy ever
saw, save for very brief time In Clan
Galeazzo Visconti's governorship from
Milan.
1t was In the days Of the ScalI-
geri that is, the rulers of the della
Scala family that Romeo and Juliet
lived and loved and died Stern his
tory pours much cold water upon this
romance, but It will not down, and
hundreds Of visitors to Verona who
find no time for the Arena yet make
a pilgrimage to Juliet's tomb.
IN the Via Santa Maria Antica and
adjoining the church Of that name is
the private graveyard of the Scali-
gerf The space is tiny and the monu-
ments large; they tower above ones
head until the winged helmets Of the
statues cut the sky like swallows.
ghere is something very cheerful and
Rclable in the way these veronese
kFlbs are set about In busy places;
feels that the sleepers could not
pnely there.