Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys: a midsummer ramble in the Dolomites

Preface

. The district described in the following pages occupies that part of the South-eastern Tyrol which lies betAveen Botzen, Bruneck, Innichen, and Belluno. Within the space thus roughly indicated are found those remarkable lime stone mountains called the Dolomites. Till Avitltin the last six or eight years — that is to say, till the publication of Ball's Guide to the Eastern Alps in 1808, and the appearance of Messrs. Gilbert and Churchill's joint volume in 186-1, — the Dolomite district was scarcely known even by name to any but scientific travellers. A few geo logists found their Avay iioav and then to Predazzo ; a few artists, attracted in the first instance to Cadore, as the birthplace of Titian, carried their sketch-books up the Ampezzo Thai ; but there it ended. Even iioav, the general public is so slightly informed upon the subject that it is by no means uncommon to find educated persons who have never heard

PREFACE.

. VIII of the Dolomites at all, or avIio take them for a religious sect, like the Mormons or the Druses. Ni ir is this surprising Avhen Ave consider the nature of the ground lying within the area just named ; the absence of roads ; the impossibility of traversing the heart of the country, except on foot or on mule-back ; the tedious postal arrangements ; the Avant of telegraphic communication ; and the primitive quality of the accommodation provided for tra vellers. A good road is the widest avenue to knoAvledge ; but there is at present only one good and complete road in the Avhole district — namely, the Strada Regia Avhich, tra versing the Avhole length of the Ampezzo Thai, connects the Venetian provinces with LoAver Austria. Other fragments of roads there are; but then they are only fragments, leading sometimes from point to point within an amphitheatre of mountains traversed only by mule tracks.

When, hoAvever, one has said that there are teAv roads — that letters, having sometimes to be carried by Avalkinc, postmen over a succession of passes, travel sloAvly and are delivered irregularly — that the inns are not only feAV and far betAveen, but often of the humblest kind — and that, except at Cortina, there is not a telegraph station in the

PREFACE.

. IX Avhole country, one has said all there is to say in disparage ment of the district. For the rest, it is difficult to speak of the people, of the climate, of the scenery, Avithout risk of being thought too partial or too enthusiastic. To say that the arts of extortion are here unknown — that the old patri archal notion of hospitality still survives, miraculously, in the minds of the inn-keepers — that it is as natural to the natives of these hills and valleys to be kind, and helpful, and disinterested, as it is natural to the SAviss to be rapa cious — that here one escapes from hackneyed sights, from overcrowded hotels, from the dreary routine of table d'hotes, from the flood of Cook's tourists, — is, after all, but to say that life in the South-eastern Tyrol is yet free from all the discomforts that have, of late years made SAvitzerland unen durable ; and that for those Avho love sketching and botany, mountain-climbing and mountain air, and Avho desire Avhen they travel to leave London and Paris behind them, the Dolomites offer a " playground " far more attractive than the Alps.

That a certain amount of activity and some poAver to resist fatigue, are necessary to the proper enjoyment of this ncnv playground, must be conceded from the beginning. The passes are too long and too fatiguing for ladies on foot,

PREFACE.

. X and should not be attempted by any avIio cannot endure eight and sometimes ten hours of mule-riding. The food and cooking, as Avill be seen in the course of the following narrative, are for the most part indifferent ; and the albergos, as I have already said, are often of the humblest kind. The beds, however, in even " the Avorst inn's Avorst room " are generally irreproachable ; and this alone covers a multitude of shortcomings. Anyone who visited Ober- Ainmergau during the last performances of the Passion Play can form a tolerably exact idea of the sort of accom modation to be met Avith at Cortina, Caprile, Primiero,- Predazzo, Paneveggio, Corfara, and St. Ulrich. A small store of tea, arrowroot, and Liebig's extract, a bottle or two of Avine and brandy, a flask of spirits of Avine and an Etna, are almost indispensable adjuncts to a lengthened tour in these mountains.

The basket which contains them adds but little to the impedimenta, and immensely to the Avell-being of the traveller. For ladies, side-saddles are absolutely necessary, there being only tAvo in the Avhole country, and but one of these for hire. There is no need to take them out all the Avay from England. They can ahvays lie bought at the last large town through which travellers pass on their Avay to

PREFACE.

. XI the Dolomites, and sold again at the first they come to on leaving the district. Some knoAvledge of Italian and German is also indispensable. French here is of no use whatever ; and Italian is almost universally spoken. It is only in the Grodner Thai, the Gader Thai, and the country north of the Ampezzo, that one comes upon a purely German population. The Dolomite district is most easily approached from either Venice, Botzen, or Bruneck ; the nearest railway stations being Toblach on the north, Atzwang on the Avest, and Conegliano on the south. All that is grandest, all that is most attractive to the artist, the geologist, and the Alpine climber, lies midway betAveen these three points, and covers an area of about thirty-five miles by fifty. The scenes Avhich the present writer has attempted to describe, all lie within that narrow radius.

A Avord ought, perhaps, to be said with regard to the Title of this book, which, at first hearing, may be taken to promise more than the author is prepared to fulfil. But it means simply that here in South Tyrol, within seventy-two hours of London, there may be found a large number of yet " untrodden peaks," and a network of valleys so

PREFACE.

. XII literally " unfrequented " that we journeyed sometimes for days together without meeting a single traveller either in the inns or on the roads, and encountered only three parties of English during the whole time betAveen entering the country on the Conegliano side and leaving it at Botzen. Of these unascended Dolomites, many exceed 10,000 feet in height ; and some — as the Cima di Fradusta, the Palle di San Martino and the Sass Maor — are so difficult, that the mountaineer who shall first set foot upon their summits will have achieved a feat in no Avay second to that of the first ascent of the Matterhorn. Of the nature and origin of Dolomite much has been written and much conjectured by French and German geologists ; but nothing as yet seems definitively proved. The Coral Reef theory of Baron Richthofen seems, how ever, to be gaming general acceptance, and to the un scientific reader sounds sufficiently conclusive.

He grounds his theory upon certain facts, such as : — 1. The singular isolation of these mountains, many of which stand detached and alone, falling aAvay steeply on all sides in a way that cannot be the result of any process of denudation.

PREFACE.

. XIII 2. The presence in their substance of such marine deposits as are found in the same position in the Coral Reefs iioav in progress of formation in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and on the Australian coast-line. 3. The absence of all deep-sea deposits. 4. The absence of all trace of volcanic origin. 5. The peculiarity of their forms, which reproduce in a remarkable manner the forms of the Coral Reef "Atolls" of the present day, being vertical, like huge Avails, towards the Avash of the tide, and supported on the lee side by sloping buttresses. 6. Their lines of curvature, and the kind of enclosures Avhich they fence in ; so again reproducing the construction of the Coral Reefs, which thus embay spaces of shallow water. 7. Finally the multiform evidences (too numerous to be dAA'elt upon here) of Iioav the Dolomite must have been slowly and steadily superimposed during long ages upon lower original beds of other rock, and the difficulty of accounting for this process by any other hypo thesis. " The Schlern," says Richthofen, taking this for his representative mountain, " is a Coral Reef ; aud the entire

PREFACE.

. XIV formation of Schlern Dolomite has in like manner originated through animal activity." * The Dolomite derives its name from that of Monsieur Dolomieu, an eminent French savant of the last century, Avho travelled in South Tyrol someAvhere about the years 1781) and 1700, and first directed the attention of the scientific Avorld towards the structural peculiarities of this kind of limestone. In conclusion I can only add, that I have tried to give a faithful impression of the country and the people ; and as, Avlieu on the spot, I endeavoured to sketch that which defied the pencil, so now I have striven in the folio Aving pages to describe that which equally defies the pen. No one knows better than myself Iioav inadequately I have succeeded. Why had I not Mr. Ruskin's poAver to create landscapes with Avords ?

And Avhy, my dear American friends to whom this volume is inscribed, had I not some of those gifts that make your paintings more eloquent than Avords ? Could I have seized the Aveirdness and poetry of those scenes, Vedder, as you Avould have seized them — could I have matched the relative tones of trees, and skies • I am indebted to Mr. G. C. Churchill's admirable " Physical Description of the Dolomite District " for the particulars epitomized above.

PREFACE.

. XV and mountain-summits, Charles Caryll Colemax, with your wonderful fidelity — could I have dipped my brush, Tilton, like you, in the rose and gold of Southern sunsets, what sketches mine would have been, aud Iioav nobly this book would have been illustrated ! AMELIA B. EDWARDS. Westbukt-os-Thym, June 5, 1873. PAGE CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Monte Generoso To Venice

HOTEL AT MONTE GENEROSO — WONDERFUL PANORAMA DREAMS ABOUT DOLOMITES DIFFICULTIES THE REDOUBTABLE COURIER THE REV. JOHN R. CHOICE OF ROUTES MENDRISIO TO COMO COMO CATHEDRAL FELLOW TRAVELLERS ON BOARD THE STEAMER BELLAGOIO LECCO TO BERGAMO, POST-HASTE PANORAMIC SCENERY BY RAIL VENICE UNDER A NEW ASPECT — WE LAY IN STORE OF PROVISIONS FOR THE COMING JOURNEY — THE QUESTION OF SIDE-SADDLES READY TO START . . . 1

Chapter II. Venice To Longarone

TOO LATE FOR THE TRAIN — VENICE TO CONEGLIANO FAREWELL TO RAILWAYS AND CIVILISATION WE TAKE TO THE ROAD — CENEDA — SERRAVALLE AND ITS GREAT TITIAN THE GORGE AND LAKE OF SERRAVALLE THE BOSCO DEL CONSIGLIO THE LAGO MORTO SANTA CROCE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE DOLOMITES A PLAGUE OF FLIES SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES — CAPO DI PONTE THE ANCIENT BASIN OF THE PIAVE — VALLEY OF THE PIAVE LONGARONE — AN INN FOR A GITOST-STORY . . . CONTENTS. PAflJ!

Chapter III. Longarone To Cortina

THE PIC GALLINA A COMMUNICATIVE PRIEST — THE TIMBER TRADE — THE SMALLEST CHURCH IN ITALY — CASTEL LAVAZZO PERAROLO A VISION OF THE ANTELAO — THE ZIGZAG OF MONTE ZUCCO — TAI CADORE — ONE OF THE FINEST DRIVES IN EUROPE THE GLORIES OF THE AMPEZZO THAL THE PELMO THE ROCHETTA THE LANDSLIP OF 1816 — THE ANTELAO THE CRODA MALCORA SORAPIS WE CROSS THE AUSTRIAN FRONTIER THE BEC DI MEZZODI THE TOFANA MONTE CRISTALLO CORTINA ARRIVAL AT GHEDINA'S INN " IL TUCKETT's " NAME PROVES A WORD OF MIGHT A THOROUGH TYROLEAN HOSTELRY PREPARATIONS FOR THE SAGRO ...... 35

Chapter IV. At Cortina

CORTINA, ITS SITUATION, CLIMATE, AND TRADE — A MESSA CANTATA THE VILLAGE CEMETERY A FIRST ASCENT THE GHEDINAS AND THEIR ART— AN UNKNOWN MOUNTAIN AN AFTERNOON STROLL THE ANTELAO PLEASANT TYROLEAN WAYS — STROLLING ACROBATS DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN OURSELVES AND THE COURIER DIFFICULTIES ARISING THEREFROM — SANTO SIORPAES THE SIDE-SADDLE QUESTION AGAIN A TYROLEAN " CARETTA " — NEAR VIEW OF THE TOFANA AMAZING COSTUMES — THE PBZZES — SUMMIT OF THE TRE SASSI PASS THE MARMOLATA THE " SIGNORA CUOC'A " . . . . . ... .57 CONTENTS. XIX

Chapter V. Cortina To Pieve DI Cadore

PAGE the sagro of cortina a tyrolean sermon the peasant maiden of livinallungo the courier replaced — an ampezzo wedding — the tofana peutelstein — the hollenstein thai, — the croda rossa landro and the due ren see — the drei zinnen the start for auronzo — the church of the crucifix pieve di cadore the house in which titian was born the casa zampieri an invasion — titian's first fresco — the odious little girl — the duomo — don antonio da via — the cadore titians — the four temperas — a curious antique predella 89

Chapter VI. Auronzo And

A7AL BUONA. DOMEGGE AND LOZZO — THE LEGEND OF MONTE CORNON — TRE PONTI THE ANTIQUITY OF THE PIAVE THE VAL D' AURONZO NATIVE POLITENESS VILLA GRANDE AND VILLA PICCOLA " L'ALTRO ALBERGO" AN UNPREPOSSESSING POPULATION — THE MARMAROLE A DESERTED SILVER MINE THE NEW ROAD — DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME VAL BUONA THE " CIRQUE " OF THE CRODA MALCORA — BASTIAN THE SOLITARY — THE MISURINA ALP A MOUNTAIN TARN THE TRE CROCE PASS .... 129

Chapter VII. Caprile

IMPORTANCE OF CORTINA AS A DOLOMITE CENTRE — OUB DEPARTURE FOR CAPRILE — THE "SIGNORA CUOCA " AGAIN CASTEL CONTENTS. XX I'M:. 1 .-,.-, 185 215 d'andraz — finnazzer's inn — the upper valley of the coe devole — a succession of rain-storms a cordial welcome — caprile — the game of pallo austrians and italians the civita the lake of alleghe — the great bergfalls of 1771 the rape of the side-saddle the col di santa lucia — titian's lost fresco — sunset on the civita

Chapter VIII. At Caprile

UNSETTLED WEATHER — PROCESSIONS AND BELLS RESOURCES OF CA- PRILE HISTORY OF CAPRILE IN THE MIDDLE AGES THE FREE STATE OF ROCCA LOCAL NOTABILITIES THE GORGE OF SOTTOGUDA THE SASSO DI RONCH — CLEMENTI AND THE TWO NESSOLS — THE GOATHERD'S CROSS — THE KING AND QUEEN OF THE DOLOMITES — A MOUNTAIN IN RUINS — THE SASSO BIANCO A TEMPTING PROPOSAL — LEGENDS OF THE SASSO DI RONCH .

Chapter IX. To Agordo And Primiero

DIFFICULTY OF GETTING UNDER WAY — FISHING FOR TIMBER — CEN CENIGHE — A VALLEY OF ROCKS — AGORDO AND ITS PIAZZA THE MINES OF THE VAL IMPERINA THE DINNER " DOLOROUS " A SPLENDID STORM VOLTAGO AND FRASSENE AN " UN TRODDEN PEAK" THE GOSALDA PASS — A LAND OF FAMINE MONTE PRABELLO — THE CEREDA PASS A JOURNEY WITHOUT AN END CASTEL PIETRA PRIMIERO AT LAST — ANCIENT LINEAGE OF THE TYROLEAN INNKEEPERS ..... CONTENTS. XXI

Chapter X. Primiero To Predazzo

PAi. E PRIMIERO AND ITS HISTORY THE EARLY SILVER- WORKERS AND THEIR OFFERING — TRANSACQUA AND ITS TITIAN — THE PRIMIERO DOLO MITES — THE VAL DI CANALI MONTE PAVIONE AND THE VETTE DI FELTRE MONTE ARZON THE PONTE DELLO SCHIOS — A PRIMIERO PROGRESSIONIST THE COMING TENOR — SIGNOR SAR TORIS AND THE ART OF APICULTURE — THE UPPER VALLEY OF THE CISMONE SAN MARTINO DI CASTROZZA A SCENE FOR A GHOST-STORY THE CIMON DELLA PALA THE COSTONZELLA PASS — THE HOSPICE OF PANEVEGGIO — THE VAL TRAVIGNOLO — PREDAZZO . ........ 243

Chapter XI. The Fassa Thal And The Fedaja Pass

A VILLAGE IN A CRATER — PREDAZZO AND ITS COMMERCE PROSPERITY VERSUS PICTURESQUENESS FOOTSTEPS OF THE ETRUSCANS THE VAL D' AVISIO MOENA THE PORPHYRY OF THE FASSA THAL VIGO AND THE FAT MAIDEN CAMPIDELLO MONTE VERNALE THE GORGE OF THE AVISIO — THE FEDAJA ALP AND THE FEDAJA LAKE THE GORGE OF SOTTOGUDA AGAIN HOME TO CAPRILE . 275 CHAPTER Xll. THE SASSO BIANCO. OROGRAPHY OF THE SASSO BIANCO — ITS PANORAMIC POSITION — ITS SUPERFICIAL EXTENT ITS GEOLOGY ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN AN EXQUISITE MORNING ANOTHER SAGRO THE CORN-ZONE CONTENTS. XXII pal; E 2H7 321 THE PEZZE PROPERTY THE WILD-FLOWER ZONE THE UPPER PASTURAGES WAITING FOR THE MISTS THE LAST SLOPE THE SUMMIT THE VIEW TO THE NORTH THE ZILLERTHAL AND ANTHOLZER ALPS THE GROSSE VENEDIGER GLIMPSES ON THE SOUTH SIDE ESTIMATED HEIGHT OF THE SASSO BIANCO — THE DESCENT — GRATIFICATION OF THE NATIVES

Chapter XIII. Forno DI Zoldo And Zoppe

ON THE ROAD AGAIN — NEAR VIEW OF THE CIVITA ADVENTURE WITH A SNAKE MONTE FERNAZZA MONTE COLDAI THE MARMOLATA PROM THE PASS OF ALLEGHE — -UNEXPECTED VIEW OF THE PELMO THE MOUNTAINS OF VAL DI ZOLDO THE BACK OF THE CIVITA THE VALLEY OF ZOLDO THE HORRORS OF CERCENA's INN — THE SCULPTOR OF BRAGAREZZA — ZOPPE ; ITS PAROCCO, AND IT'S TITIAN LUNCHEON IN A TYROLEAN COUNTRY-HOUSE BKUSETOLON AND HIS WORKS — SPECIMEN OF A NATIVE VALLEY AND PASS OF PALLAFAVEKA — IN THE SHADE OF THE PELMO PESCUL — SELVA AND THE ABORIGINES — CAPRILE AGAIN

Chapter XIV. Caprile To Botzen Choice Of Routes Goodbye To Caprile Pieve

d'aNDRAZ THE UPPER VALLEY OF LIVINALLUNGO LAST VIEW OF THE PELMO THE CAMPOLUNGO PASS — CORFARA A COMING PAINTER A POPULATION OF ARTISTS — TICINI AND HIS WORKS AT CORFARA A PHENOMENON THE COLFOSCO PASS THE GRODNER THAL CONTENTS. XXIII PAGE 349 THE CAPITAL OF TOYLAND — THE TRADE OF ST. ULRICH THE LADIN TONGUE RELICS OF ETRURIA — THE PUFLER GORGE THE SEISSER ALP THE LANGKOFEL, THE PLATTKOGEL, AND THE SCHLERN — THE BATHS OF RATZES — DESCENT INTO THE VALLEY OF THE EISACK BOTZEN THE ROSENGARTEN ONCE MORE — FAREWELL .......... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MAP. PACE author's route map ......... 1 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. THE SASSO BIANCO FROM VAL CORDEVOLE .... Frontispiece. MONTE ANTELAO ........ To face 70 MONTE CBISTALLO AND PIC POPENA . . . . . . „ 105 TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE ........,, 115 THE SASSO DI RONCH . . . . . . . . ,, 205 PRIMIERO ............ 240 PANORAMIC VIEW OF VAL DI CANALI ...... 257 MONTE PELMO ........

Tofact 343 THE ROSENGARTEN, FROM BOTZEN „ 351 WOOD ENGRAVINGS IN THE TEXT. PEASANT WOMAN OF LIVINALLUNGO ...... Vignettt LAKE OF SANTA CROCE 30 THE PIC GALLINA 3S CASTEL LAVAZZO .......... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXVI PAGE HIGH STREET, CORTINA . . . . . ... 50 UNKNOWN MOUNTAINS NEAR CORTINA ...... 69 THE DREI ZINNEN .......... 106 NEAR CORTINA .......... 109 VALLEY OF AURONZO . . ■ . . . . . . . 137 VENETIAN LION AT CAPRILE . . . . . . .1(39 MONTE CIVITA . . . . . . . . . . . 171 THE SASSO DI RONCH . ........ 198 THE SASSO BIANCO .......... 207 CASTEL PIETRA .......... 237 PREDAZZO ........... 280 MONTE MARMOLATA, FROM THE PASS OF ALLEGHE .... 327 MONTE SERRATA .......... 339 THE AIGUILLES OF THE SCHLERN ....... MONTE GENEROSO TO VENICE. HOTEL AT MONTE GENEROSO — WONDERFUL PANORAMA — DREAMS ABOUT DOLOMITES — DIFFICULTIES THE REDOUBTABLE COURIER THE REV. JOHN R. CHOICE OF ROUTES MENDRISIO TO COMO COMO CATHEDRAL FELLOW TRAVELLERS ON BOARD THE STEAMER — BELLAGGIO — LECCO TO BERGAMO, POST-HASTE PANORAMIC SCENERY BY RAIL VENICE UNDER A NEW ASPECT — WE LAY IN STORE OF PROVISIONS FOR THE COMING JOURNEY THE QUESTION OF SIDE-SADDLES — READY TO START. B & UNFREQUENTED YALLEYS.

Chapter I. Monte Generoso To Venice

An autumn in North Italy, a Avinter in Rome, a spring tide in Sorrento, brought summer round again — the rich Italian summer, Avith its wealth of fruits and flowers, its intolerable heat, and its blinding brightness. The bar barian tide had long ago set north Avards and overfloAved into SAvitzerland. Even those Avho had lingered longest Avere fain at last to turn their faces toAvards the hills ; and so it happened that the Avriter and a friend Avho had joined her of late in Naples, found themselves, about the middle of June, 1872, breathing the cooler airs of Monte Generoso. Here Avas a pleasant hotel, filled to overfloAving, and numbering among its guests many Roman friends of the past season. Here, too, Avere green slopes, and shady Avoods, and meadoAvs splendid with such wild floAvers as none of us had ever seen elseAA'here.

The steaming lakes. &* UNFREQUENTED VALLEYS. 4 from Avhich avc had just escaped — Como, Lugano and Maggiore — lay in still, shining sheets three thousand feet beloAv. The vast Lombard flats on the one side simmered all day in burning mists to the farthest horizon. The great snow-ranges bounding SAvitzerland and Tyrol on the other, glowed with the rose of every dawn, and turned purple Avhen the sun Avent down behind them in glory every evening. Having this wondrous panorama constantly before our eyes, with its changing lights and shadoAvs, and its magical effects of cloud-wreath and shoAver — catching now a sudden glimpse of the Finster Aar Horn and the Bernese range — iioav an apparitional vision of Monte Rosa, or the Matter horn, or even (on a clear morning, from the summit behind the hotel) of the far-distant Ortler Spitze on the Tyrolese border — Ave began, somehoAv, to think and talk less of our proposed tour in the Engadine ; to look more and more longingly towards the north-eastern horizon ; and to dream in a vague way of those mystic mountains beyond Verona Avhich we knew of, someAvhat indefinitely, as the Dolomites.

The Dolomites ! It was full fifteen years since I had first seen sketches of them by a great artist not long since passed away, and their strange outlines and still stranger colouring had haunted me ever since. I thought of them as eveiy summer came round ; I regretted them every MONTE GENEROSO TO VENICE. 5 autumn ; I cherished dim hopes about them eATery spring. Sketching about Venice in a gondola a year before the time of Avhich I Avrite, I used to be ever looking towards the faint blue peaks beyond Murano. In short, it was an old longing ; and noAv, high up on the mountain side, Avith Zermatt and the Engadine close within reach, and the multitudinous Alps extending across half the horizon, it came back upon me in such force as to make all that these great mountains and passes had to shoA\T seem tame and undesirable.

Fortunately my friend (Avhom I aauII call L. for briefness) had also read and dreamed of Dolomites, and Avas as eager to knoAv more of them as myself ; so Ave soon reached that stage in the history of every expedition Avhen vague pos sibilities merge into planned certainties, and the study of maps and routes becomes the absorbing occupation of every clay. There were, of course, some difficulties to be overcome ; not only those difficulties of accommodation and transit Avhich make the Dolomite district less accessible than many more distant places, but special difficulties arising out of our immediate surroundings. There Avas S- , for instance (L.'s maid), who, being delicate, was less able for mountain work than ourselves. And there Avas the supreme difficulty of the courier — a gentleman of refined and expensive tastes, Avho abhorred Avhat is generally &* UNFREQUENTED VALLEYS. 6 understood by " roughing it," despised primitive simplicity, and exacted that his employers should strictly limit their love of the picturesque to districts abundantly intersected by railways and well furnished with first-class hotels.

That this illustrious man should look with favour on our new project was obviously hopeless ; so AAre discussed it secretly " Avith bated breath," and the proceedings at once assumed the delightful character of a conspiracy. The Rev. John R., AAdio had been acting for some Aveeks as English chaplain at Stresa, was in the plot from the beginning. He had himself AATalked through part of our Dolomite route a feAV years before, and so gave us just that sort of practical advice which is, of all help in travelling, the most valuable. For this ; for his gallant in difference to the ultimate AA-rath of the courier ; and for the energetic Avay in which (with a noble disregard of appearances, for which we can never be sufficiently grateful) he made appointments Avith us in secluded summer-houses, and attended stealthy indoor conferences at hours when the servants Avere supposed to be at meals, I here bee to offer him our sincere and hearty thanks.

All being at last fully planned, it became necessary to announce our change of route. The great man was ac cordingly summoned ; the Avriter, never famous for moral courage, ignominiously retreated; and L, the dauntless, undertook the service of danger. Of that tremendous aMONTE GENEROSO TO VENICE. 7 interview no details ever transpired. Enough that L. came out from it composed but victorious ; and that the great man, greater than e\rer under defeat, comported himself thenceforth with such a nicely adjusted air of martyrdom and dignity as defies description. Now there are three ways by which to enter the Dolomite district ; namely, by Botzen, by Bruneck, or by Venice ; and it fell in better with our after plans to begin from Venice. So on the morning of Thursday the 27th of June, Ave bade farewell to our friends on Monte Generoso, and Avent doAvn in all the freshness and beauty of the early morning.

It Avas a day that promised Avell for the beginning of such a journey. There had been a heavy thunderstorm the night before, and the last cumuli were yet rolling off in a long billowy rack upon the verge of land and sky. The plains of Lombardy glittered wide and far ; Milan gleamed, a marble speck, in the mid-distance ; and farthest seen of all, a faint, pure obelisk of suoav, traced as it were upon the transparent air, rose Monte Viso, a hundred and tAventy miles away. But soon the rapidly descending road and thickening Woods shut out the vie av, and in less than tAvo hours Ave were doAvn again in Mendrisio, a clean little toAvn containing an excellent hotel, where travellers bound for the mountain, and traATellers coming doAvn to the plains, are Avont to rest. Here we parted from our heavy luggage, keeping only a feAV small bags for use during the tour.

Here also avc &* UNFREQUENTED VALLEYS. 8 engaged a carriage to take us on to Como, where we arrived about midday, after a dull and dusty drive of some two hours more. It Avas our intention to push on that afternoon as far as Bellaggio, and in the morning to take the early steamer to Lecco, where Ave hoped to catch the 9.25 train reaching Venice at 4.30. Tired as Ave noAv were, it was pleasant to learn that the steamer Avould not leave till three, and that we might put up for a couple of hours at the Hotel Volta — not only the best in Como, but one of the best in Italy. Here we rested and took luncheon, and, despite the noontide blaze out of doors, contriA7ed to get as far as that exquisite little miniature in marble, the Cathedral. Lingering there till the last moment, examining the cameo like bas-reliefs of the facade, the strange beasts of unknown date that support the holy-water basins near the entrance, and the delicate Italian-Gothic of the nave and aisles, wTe only ran back just in time to see our effects being Avheeled down to the pier, and to find the steamer not only crowded Avith passengers, but the deck piled, funnel-high, with bales of raAv silk, empty baskets, and market produce of every description.

We were the only English on board, as we had been the only English in the streets, in the hotel, and apparently in all the town of Como. Our fellow-passengers were of the bourgeois class — stout matrons Avith fat brown hands cased MONTE GENEROSO TO VENICE. 9 in netted mittens and loaded Avith rings ; elderly peres de famille in straw hats ; black-eyed young womeii in gay shaAvls and fawn-coloured kid boots ; and a sprinkling of priests. It had probably been market-day in Como; for the fore-deck was crowded Avith chattering country folk, chiefly bronzed Avomen in Avooden clogs, some feAV of Avhom wore in their plaited hair that fan-shaped head-dress of silver pins, which, though chiefly characteristic of the Canton Tessin, just over the neighbouring Swiss border, is yet Avorn all about the neighbourhood of the lakes.

So the boat steamed out of the little port and aloug the glassy lake, landing many passengers at every stage ; and the fat matrons drank iced Chiavenna beer ; and the priests talked together in a little knot, and made merry among themselves. There Avere three of them — one rubicund, jovial, and someAvhat threadbare ; another very bent, and toothless, and humble, and desperately shabby ; Avhile the third, in shining broadcloth and a black satin waistcoat, carried himself like a gentlemen and a man of the world, Avas liberal Avith the contents of his silver snuff-box, and had only to open his lips to evoke obsequious laughter. We landed the two first at small Avater-side hamlets by the Avay, and the last Avent ashore at Cadenabbia, in a smart boat with two rowers. Wooded hills, vineyards, villages, terraced gardens, gleaming villas bowered in orange-gro.ves, glided past c &* UNFREQUENTED VALLEYS. 10 meanwhile — a SAAdft and beautiful panorama.

The little voyage Avas soon over, and the sun was still high Avhen we reached Bellaggio ; a haven of delicious rest, if only for a few hours. Next morning, hoAvever, by a quarter past seven, we Avere again on board and making, too slowly, for Lecco, Avhere Ave arrived just in time to hear the parting whistle of the 9.25 train. Noav as there were only tAvo departures a day from this place and the next train Avould not start for seven hours, arriving in Venice close upon eleven at night, our case looked serious. We drove, hoAvever, to a hotel, apparently the best ; and here the landlady, a bright energetic body, proposed that we should take a carriage across the country to Bergamo, and there catch up the 11.13 Express from Milan. Here was the carriage standing ready in the courtyard ; here Avere the horses ready in the stables ; here was her nephew ready to driAre us — the lightest carriage, the best horses, the steadiest Avhip in Lecco !