51 posts=45 Eng. miles. A diligence goes to and from Milan, twice a week. In 1840, the supply of post-horses on this road was very small, not exceeding 6 at each post-house, and difficulties are therefore experienced in getting on. "The post-boys are often willing to go on a stage beyond their own, but they demand exorbitant prices, and you are not sure that the same difficulty will not occur at the next station." C. D.

The road over the Bernardin was constructed in 1822, under the direction of the engineer Pocobelli, at the joint expense of the Sardinian and Grison governments. About 6-7ths of the sum required was advanced by the King of Sardinia, who duly appreciated the advantages to his dominions to be derived from a highway, which should connect by a direct line, the port of Genoa, and the capital of Turin, with Switzerland and W. Germany.

The road, leaving the bridge of Splügen on the 1., advances up the valley of Hinter- Rhein, whose stern and barren features have less of beauty than of wildness, along the 1. bank of the Rhine through Nüfanen, a distance of about 9 miles, to 1 Hinterrhein (Inn Post, a wretched inn)—the highest village in the valley, 170 ft. above Splügen, an elevation at which no grain but barley grows. Hence to the source of the Rhine, will take up 6 or 7 hours going and returning, exclusive of stoppages.

231

A multitude of streamlets trickle down from the crevices in the sur rounding mountains, where deep snow rests almost all the year round, to feed the infant Rhine. But the Source of the Rhine lies about 10 miles higher up the valley, half of which distance, or two-thirds late in the summer, can be performed on horseback, the rest on foot; the latter part of the walk especially is difficult and fatiguing, and the assistance of a guide is necessary to find the way. The scenery of the upper part of the valley is savagely grand, and well deserves the notice of travellers. The river takes its rise at the very extremity of this frost-bound valley, from beneath a glacier ironically called Paradies, situated between the Moschel Horn and the Piz Val-Rhein, or Vogelberg (10,300 ft.), two of the highest mountains in the Grison range, forming part of the group called Monte Adula. At the end of about 4 miles the path begins to ascend, and is soon lost in crossing steep slopes covered with debris of rock, so that a previous knowledge of the direction will alone enable the traveller to reach the source by himself. After skirting along the sides of a savage ravine called Hölle a steep descent leads down to the fountain head, in the glacier, which is sometimes hollowed out into a magnificent dome

or cavern.

The road over the Bernardin bids adieu to the Rhine at Hinter- Rhein, crossing it by a stone bridge, the first which spans its current, after which it immediately begins to ascend, breasting the steep slope of the mountain by sixteen zigzags; many of its turnings are very abrupt.

A striking view opens out on the rt. over the head of the Rhine valley and the glaciers whence it bursts forth. On the rt. of the road rises the gigantic mass of the MoschelHorn, and on the left the black peak of the Mittag-Horn overhangs the pass.

232

Route 90..

This passage over the Alps is said to have been known to the Romans; it was called the Vogelberg down to the beginning of the fifteenth century, when a pious missionary, St. Bernardin of Sienna, preached the gospel through these remote Alpine valleys, and a chapel dedicated to him, on the S. side of the mountain, gave rise to the name which it still retains. It was traversed in March, 1799, by the French army of Lecourbe, at a season when winter still reigns on these elevations, and before the mountain possessed any other road than a miserable mule-path.

The summit of the pass, about 7115 ft. above the sea, and 2400 above the village of Splügen, is partly occupied by a lake called Lago Moesola, the source of the Moesa, along whose margin the road runs. At this point a very substantial but homely Inn, or house of refuge, has been erected.

A little way down the S. slope of the mountain the Moesa is crossed by a handsome bridge of a single arch, 110 ft. above the river, named after Victor Emanuel, King of Sardinia, who contributed so largely to the construction of this road. The carriageway is here covered over with a substantial roof, supported on solid buttresses, to protect it from avalanches and whirlwinds of snow, to which this gully is much exposed at times. A few straggling and stunted pines here make their appearance; a little lower down trees 40 or 50 ft. high, may be seen clinging to the rock, with barely two feet depth of soil beneath them: their roots scarcely strike downwards at all, but spread far and wide in a horizontal direction, so that when a tree is thrown down by the wind, roots and soil are peeled off at once, and nothing but bare rock remains below.

The S. face of the mountain is also far more abrupt and precipitous than the N.; but the road is so skilfully carried down it, and so gradually,

that a postilion, accustomed to it, trots quickly down the whole way, turning sharp round the corners of the zigzags. The traveller beholds the road almost beneath his feet, extending like an uncoiled rope below him, and as he moves backwards and forwards, following its turns, he appears to hover over the valley below, and might fancy himself fastened to the end of a pendulum and balanced in mid-air.

1 St. Bernardino-(Inns: Post, and another larger, but neither are to to be recommended)—is a post-station and village, the first and loftiest in the valley of Misocco, consisting of a few houses planted half-way down the descent on a small plain or ledge. There is a mineral spring here, having a temperature of about 40° Fahr.

It

is one of the highest mineral sources among the Alps, and annually draws a few invalids to the spot, but the company is far from select. The passage of the mountain from Hinter-Rhein to St. Bernardin is effected in about 3 hours.

The descent from this into the lower valley of Misocco (in Germ. Misox Thal; Ital. Val Mesolsina) is a scene of beauty scarcely surpassed among the Alps.

Near St. Giacomo there are quarries of gypsum; here there is also a fall of the Moesa. It is a continued descent as far as Misocco and the Ponte di Soazza, which is only a few hundred feet higher than Coire, in the valley of the Rhine. This will give some idea of the abruptness of the southern descent from the Alps contrasted with the northern.

1 Misocco-(Inn: Post, very dirty) - a village of about 900 inhabitants, called also Cremao. The views from its church-yard and old castle are fine.

In the neighbourhood of Misocco the luxuriant growth of the chestnut and walnut, the abundant crops of maize, the presence of the vine and the mulberry which succeed each

other within the space of a few miles, remind the traveller that he is indeed in Italy, and he soon becomes otherwise aware of this change by the altered language, the laziness, and filth of the inhabitants and their miserable habitations. The situation of Misocco is charming; a little way below it, in the middle of the valley, rises up the ruined Castle of Misocco, a feudal seat of the powerful lords of Masox, sold by them, 1482, to the celebrated Milanese general Trivulzio, taken and destroyed by the Graubündtners, 1526. The valley is here bounded by precipices, over and among whose rocky sides a number of waterfalls dash, assuming the shape of that which in Scotland is called the Mare's Tail. The knoll on which the castle stands seems formed to command the passage up and down.

A very steep and difficult path ascends the E. side of the valley, nearly opposite the castle, and crossing the ridge of the Alps, by the dangerous pass of the Forcola, descends at once upon Chiavenna.

The valley of Misocco has lost much of its beauty and cheerfulness since the fearful thunderstorm and inundation of August, 1834, which overwhelmed the land in many places with torrents of rocks, and beds of gravel and alluvium, thus condemning it to eternal sterility. 50 houses, 200 châlets, and many bridges were swept away. An inscription has been attached to a huge mass stating that it and others descended from the Forcola.

Below Soazza the road crosses the Moesa twice, and reaches the bottom of the valley, the descent below this being inconsiderable. On the rt., close to the road, the graceful cascade of Buffalora precipitates itself from the top of a rock. At Lostalla the general legislative assemblies of the men of the valley are held annually.

11 Leggia. The post is either

here or at Roveredo. At Grono the Val Calanca opens out from the W.

Roveredo (Inn: Post, Il Canone d'Oro)-a village containing nearly 1000 inhabitants, with the ruined castle of Trivulzio in its vicinity. The Prior of Roveredo and 11 old women were burnt for practising witchcraft by Carlo Borromeo, in 1583, at his first visitation of the diocese. The rivers hereabouts are used to float down the timber cut in the forests of the higher transverse valleys.

St. Vittore is the last village in the canton of the Grisons; below it we enter the canton Tessin and the Val Levantina, and our road joins that descending from the St. Gothard (Route 34.) Below the junction of the rivers Moesa and Ticino stands Arbedo, memorable in history for the severe defeat which the Swiss sustained here from the Milanese, commanded by the celebrated generals Della Pergola and Carmagnola, in 1422. Near the Church of St. Paul, called Chiesa Rossa, from its red colour, 2000 Swiss lie buried under 3 large mounds, still distinguishable. Defeat was at that period so unusual to the Swiss, even from a greatly superior force, that they retired across the Alps abashed and discouraged.

The distant aspect of Bellinzona surrounded by battlemented walls, which once stretched quite across the valley, and overhung by no less than 3 feudal castles, is exceedingly imposing and picturesque. It looks as though it still commanded (as it once did) the passage of the valley. The luxuriance of vegetation, and the magnificent forms of the mountains around, complete the grandeur of the picture.

of the Ticino, and containing 1520 inhabitants, is one of the 3 chief towns of the canton Tessin, and becomes the seat of government alternately with Lugano and Locarno, for 6 years together. It has all the character of an Italian town in its narrow and dirty streets, and in the arcades which run under its houses. It stretches all across the valley to the river, so that the only passage up or down lies through its gates.

- from

It is still a place of some commercial importance as an entrepôt for the merchandise of Germany and Italy, and from its situation at the point of union of 4 roads the St. Gothard, the Bernardin, from Lugano, and from Locarno on the Lago Maggiore. In ancient times, however, it was of still greater military consequence, as the key of the passage from Lombardy into Germany, and defended as it was by 3 forts and high walls, it must have been a place of great strength. It became the fruitful cause of intrigue, contest, and bloodshed between the crafty Italians and the encroaching Swiss. The latter first obtained possession of it, and of the Val Levantine, by a nominal bargain of 2400 florins paid to the lord of Masox, and they obtained from the Emperor Sigismond a confirmation of their title. The Duke of Milan, Phillip Maria Visconti, whose ancestors had lost this territory, by no means acquiesced in this transfer, and, seizing a favourable opportunity, surprised the Swiss garrison of Bellinzona by a Milanese force under Della Pergola, and took possession of the town and valley. It was this event which led to the battle of Arbedo, in which the Swiss received so severe a check. They afterwards twice gained possession of Bellinzona and its subject valleys by hard-fighting, "by the help of God and their halberts," as they boastingly proclaimed, first from the Duke of Milan, and next from the French, who, in the reign of Louis

Bellinzona.

XII., obtained temporary possession of these valleys.

From the beginning of the 16th to the end of the 18th century the Swiss maintained uninterrupted possession of Bellinzona, governing its territory, as a state subject to the cantons, with a rule as tyrannic as that of the absolute dukes of Milan, their prede

cessors.

The three picturesque Castles which still seem to domineer over the town, though partly in ruins, were the residence of the 3 Swiss bailiffs deputed to govern the district, and were occupied by a garrison and armed with some pieces of cannon. The largest, called Castello Grande, on an isolated hill to the W. of the town, belonged to canton Uri, and now serves as an arsenal and prison. Of the two castles on the E. the lower one, Castello di Mezzo, belonged to canton Schwytz, and the highest of all, Castello Corbario, to Unterwalden; they are both unoccupied. The view from Castello Grande is very striking. A long bridge is here thrown over the river Ticino, which, however, in summer is so shrunk as to occupy only 3 or 4 of the arches. The banks are guarded against sudden inundations by a strong dyke called Tondo Ripario, constructed by the French under Francis I.

There remains little else to particularise here. The principal Church, in the square, is a handsome modern building faced with white marble, and has a pulpit ornamented with historical bas-reliefs. There are several convents here. The Church of S. Biaggio (St. Blaize), in the suburb Ravecchia, outside the Lugano gate, is said to be very ancient.

From Bellinzona the traveller has the choice of two roads to Milan : by the Lago Maggiore (Route 91) or by the Lago Lugano (Route 92).

The Steamer on the Lago Maggiore departs from Magadino, 8 m. S. of Bellinzona, every morning except Sunday, but see p. 237. (See HANDBOOK for NORTH ITALY.)

ROUTE 91.

BELLINZONA TO MAGADINO AND LOCARNO, ON THE LAGO MAGGIORE.

Ital. miles. Swiss stund. Eng. m.

23/

33

=

91

121

To Magadino, 8 To Locarno, 11 The lower part of the valley of the Ticino, between Bellinzona and the lake, is a broad plain, from which the mountains recede to a consider

able distance, but still give grandeur to the landscape. The country is highly cultivated, the slopes covered with vineyards, but the bottom becomes marshy lower down, and is therefore unhealthy.

There is a road practicable for carriages on both sides of the Ticino; that on the 1. is the most direct to Magadino.

On quitting Bellinzona, by the Lugano gate the dry bed of a torrent called Dragonata is passed. As its name would imply, it is at times a great scourge; it carried off in 1768 the Franciscan convent outside the town, and threatens similar injury.

numerous

There are many country-houses on the outskirts; and high upon the slopes of the hills are buildings, now deserted, to which in ancient times the natives of Bellinzona used to resort for safety, when the plague was raging in the town. At Cadenazzo the road to Lugano, over the Monte Cenere*, (Route 92.)

turns to the E. out of our route.

11† Magadino. (Inns: Il Batello a Vapore, kept by Sig. Buffoni, a physician; is clean, comfortable, and charges moderate; well situated by the side of a mountain stream which carries with it a current of fresh air, and separates the house from the marshes ;-post in the village. Magadino has the reputation of being unhealthy, owing to the neighbour hood of the marshes of the Ticino and the prevalence of malaria — a sufficient reason to make a traveller

*1 Posts of canton Ticino.
+ See
5. Introduction.

235

cautious in taking up his quarters in the village for the night. § 12.)

This little village was not long ago a small group of houses, but it has gained some importance of late, to the prejudice of its neighbour Locarno, as the port of the Lago Maggiore, at whose N. extremity it lies, and as the station of the steam.boats.

The steamer Verbano sets out in summer from Magadino down the Lago Maggiore to Arona and the Borromean Islands, returning in the evening; (but see p. 237.)

From Magadino to Lugano is 3 posts of canton Ticino. Č. D.

The road from Bellinzona to Locarno crosses the Ticino by the long bridge completed in 1815, in the place of one carried away by the fearful inundation of 1515, which did so much injury to the whole valley (p. 110). The road runs along the rt, bank. It passes under the Monte Carasso, and commands a good view of the opposite mountains, including the Monte Cenere, and up the valley over the romantic town of Bellinzona to the snowy Alps towering behind it.

The low ground through which

the now almost stagnant Ticino winds, being very marshy, is not so pleasing a feature, and the exhalations from it are unwholesome. At the bridge of Sementina, a torrent issuing out of a ravine on the rt., forms a pretty waterfall. In 1829 this stream, swelled with sudden rains, desolated the land around its mouth, and carried away the bridge. According to the superstitious notions of the peasantry, the upper part of this wild gorge is haunted by the ghosts of misers, who there do penance after death for their exactions from the

poor while living. The latter part of the route, after crossing the torrent Verzasca as it winds along the W. shore of the lake, is splendid beyond description.

33 Locarno (Germ. Luggarus). (Inn: Corona.) This is one of the