Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino | Page 7

sky was of a deep blue; there was not a single cloud either in sky or on
mountain, but the snow was already deep, and had covered everything
beneath its smooth and heaving bosom. There was no breath of air, but
the cold was intense; presently the sun set upon all except the higher
peaks, and the broad shadows stole upwards. Then there was a rich
crimson flush upon the mountain tops, and after this a pallor cold and
ghastly as death. If he is fortunate in his day, I do not think any one will
be sorry to have crossed the St. Gothard in mid-winter; but one pass

will do as well as another.
Airolo, at the foot of the pass on the Italian side, was, till lately, a quiet
and beautiful village, rising from among great green slopes, which in
early summer are covered with innumerable flowers. The place,
however, is now quite changed. The railway has turned the whole Val
Leventina topsy-turvy, and altered it almost beyond recognition. When
the line is finished and the workmen have gone elsewhere, things will
get right again; but just now there is an explosiveness about the valley
which puzzles one who has been familiar with its former quietness.
Airolo has been especially revolutionised, being the headquarters for
the works upon the Italian side of the great St. Gothard tunnel, as
Goschenen is for those on the German side; besides this, it was burnt
down two or three years ago, hardly one of the houses being left
standing, so that it is now a new town, and has lost its former
picturesqueness, but it will be not a bad place to stay at as soon as the
bustle of the works has subsided, and there is a good hotel- -the Hotel
Airolo. It lies nearly 4000 feet above the sea, so that even in summer
the air is cool. There are plenty of delightful walks--to Piora, for
example, up the Val Canaria, and to Bedretto.
After leaving Airolo the road descends rapidly for a few hundred feet
and then more slowly for four or five kilometres to Piotta. Here the first
signs of the Italian spirit appear in the wood carving of some of the
houses. It is with these houses that I always consider myself as in Italy
again. Then come Ronco on the mountain side to the left, and Quinto;
all the way the pastures are thickly covered with cowslips, even finer
than those that grow on Salisbury Plain. A few kilometres farther on
and sight is caught of a beautiful green hill with a few natural terraces
upon it and a flat top--rising from amid pastures, and backed by higher
hills as green as itself. On the top of this hill there stands a white
church with an elegant Lombard campanile--the campanile left
unwhitewashed. The whole forms a lovely little bit of landscape such
as some old Venetian painter might have chosen as a background for a
Madonna.
This place is called Prato. After it is passed the road enters at once upon
the Monte Piottino gorge, which is better than the Devil's Bridge, but
not so much to my taste as the auriculas and rhododendrons which
grow upon the rocks that flank it. The peep, however, at the hamlet of

Vigera, caught through the opening of the gorge, is very nice. Soon
after crossing the second of the Monte Piottino bridges the first
chestnuts are reached, or rather were so till a year ago, when they were
all cut down to make room for some construction in connection with
the railway. A couple of kilometres farther on and mulberries and
occasional fig-trees begin to appear. On this we find ourselves at Faido,
the first place upon the Italian side which can be called a town, but
which after all is hardly more than a village.
Faido is a picturesque old place. It has several houses dated the middle
of the sixteenth century; and there is one, formerly a convent, close to
the Hotel dell' Angelo, which must be still older. There is a brewery
where excellent beer is made, as good as that of Chiavenna--and a
monastery where a few monks still continue to reside. The town is
2365 feet above the sea, and is never too hot even in the height of
summer. The Angelo is the principal hotel of the town, and will be
found thoroughly comfortable and in all respects a desirable place to
stay at. I have stayed there so often, and consider the whole family of
its proprietor so much among the number of my friends, that I have no
hesitation in cordially recommending the house.
Other attractions I do not know that the actual town possesses, but the
neighbourhood is rich. Years ago,