fIVE wEEKS' toUR FROM sWITZERLAND TO THE rIVIERA
Including mILAN, vERONA, vENICE, bOLOGNA, fLORENCE, pERUGIA, aSSISI, rOME, nAPLES, oRVIETO, sIENA, pISA, AND gENOA
| 1st day |
Milan. Coming from Switzerland, one would naturally enter Italy by way of Milan. The Cathedral is notable as one of the wonders of the world, which, as Mark Twain says, " ought to be under a glass case." Other sights are San Ambrogio, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuel and Leonardo da Vinci's " Last Supper," at the old Dominican Monastery. |
| 2d day | Verona (three hours from Milan). The Roman Amphitheater here is one of the most perfectly preserved in the world. See the fine Gothic Cathedral with Titian's " Assumption," the Church of San Zenone. Verona was the home of the Capulets and the Ghibellines, and here are the tombs of the Scaligers and what is known as the tomb of Juliet. |
| 3d day 4th 5th 6th 7th |
Venice (three hours from Verona). The Piazza San Marco, the noble Cathedral, the Doge's Palace, and the Library; the Bridge of Sighs, the Rial to, and sunsets ("the hour of Titian ") on the Grand Canal, make Venice one of the most fascinating of cities in Italy. Take a trip to Lido, on the Adriatic. |
| 8th day | Bologna (three hours from Venice) . The Leaning Towers, the University, the Academy of Arts, with Raphael's " St. Cecilia," the home of Guido Reni. A side trip to Ravenna, rich in early Christian art, and the burial-place of Dante Alighieri, repays one. |
| 9th day 10th 11th 12th 13th |
Florence (three hours from Bologna). The city of palaces, with the Duomo and the Baptistery, the Campanile, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi and Pitti Palaces. The tombs of Michael Angelo and Galileo in San Croce, and of the Medici family in San Lorenzo. |
| 14th | Perugia (four hours from Florence). An ancient Etruscan city, with 103 churches and 50 monasteries to a population of 20,000. Opposite the Palazzo del Municipio is a magnificent fountain, designed by Fra Bevignate, Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio and Maestro Rosso, a combination of great artists, but the fountain seldom plays. |
| 15th | Assisi (one hour from Perugia), the birthplace of St. Francis, is perched on a high hill, and has a vast Franciscan monastery, with a wonderful Gothic double church. |
ROME |
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| Multitudinous voices of the past, of the present, and in a sense, even of the future, attest in language that cannot be mistaken by anyone the greatness of the Eternal City. — R. Bosworth Smith. | |
16th day |
Rome (four hours and a half from Assisi). The traveler has now reached the city which for many centuries was the nursing mother of genius, of heroes and patriots, statesmen and soldiers; of poets, orators and philosophers; conquerors and rulers of divers nations — of nations so many in number that the Roman empire included nearly every portion of the earth's surface known to men in the earliest days of the Christian era. Of the great empire once ruled from Rome nothing now remains to her, as the governing city, but the newly created kingdom of Italy ; and of that she has now as good reason to be proud as are the modern Italians of their venerable capital. " To see Rome and die " was an aspiration for men in past ages. In our own generation a man prefers to see Rome and live, to profit by, at least mentally, the realization of that which from his early schooldays' readings had been left to his imagination. Unless he proposes to spend a longer term here for study or otherwise, ten days will suffice for the ordinary tourist to spend here, although a year could be profitably spent by the student of architecture or of history in careful examination of the material which this great city provides. We, however, are occupying ourselves in a trip around the world, and so must be off after a brief visit, and the author will not presume even to suggest to his readers what is to be seen in this sublime center of Christendom. |
| 21st day 22d 23d 24th 25th 26th 27th |
Naples (five hours and a half from Rome). The many outside excursions which can be made from Naples make one week not too long in " Naples, la Bella." The trips include Vesuvius, Pompeii, La Cava, Capri, Paestum, Amalfi, . Ravello, Sorrento, Castellamare, Baiae, Lake Fusaro, Ischia, Casamicciola, Posilippo, and to the Royal Palace at Caserta. |
| 28th day 29th 30th 31st 32d |
Rome (five hours and a half from Naples) . A suggested break in the middle of the ten days given to Rome is intended to spare the traveler from consequences of too continuous activity and absorption in the fascinating occupation of sightseeing in the most attractive of cities, in a climate inclined to be somewhat enervating to the unacclimated visitor. The intermission of a trip to Naples will have been delightful and invigorating. |
| 33d day | Orvieto (two hours from Rome) stands on a lofty rock. Once an Etruscan city of importance, and in the middle ages a frequent refuge for the popes when disturbances occurred in Rome. The Cathedral, built in commemoration of the "Miracle of Bolsena," is a remarkable specimen of Gothic architecture. The edifice, with its sculptures, stained glass and other decorative work, exhibits examples of the progress of mediaeval art. A curiosity is the Pozzo di S. Patrizio, a well with a spiral staircase dug in the rock. The Public Garden, with an Amphitheater, commands a fine view over the valley of the Paglia and the Tiber. |
| 34th day | Siena (four hours from Orvieto) . Full of Italian Gothic architecture of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Cathedral, crowning the hill, occupies the site of an ancient Temple of Minerva, and is one of the most notable in Italy. There is, indeed, so much of the best and most interesting of Italian art, in architecture, sculpture and paintings, to be seen in Siena, that if the traveler can spare a second day we would advise him to stay. |
| 35th day | Pisa (three hours from Siena) . The famous Leaning Tower, the Duomo, Baptistery and Campo Santo. A magnificent drive is through the king's hunting grounds to the sea. |
| 36 day | Genoa (four hours from Pisa), surnamed " La Superba." Superbly located on heights between two rivers, it is one of the greatest commercial cities of the kingdom, exceedingly wealthy, and besides the Cathedral has many handsome public buildings and private resi- dences. It is, in fact, a city whose life is not altogether of the past. The Campo Santo contains a marvelous . collection of mortuary monuments, and is considered the finest public cemetery in the world. The city is associated with the memory of Christopher Columbus. |
