Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad
The Italian, shivering and blue, will
tell you it is not cold at all, for he will permit no reproach to lie on
his beloved land; but the traveller frequently becomes discouraged, and
the American contingent, especially, blames those misleading English
writers who, finding relief from their own bleak island in Italian
climes, exaggerated the conditions by apostrophizing the country as
"Sunny Italy" and for more than a century uttered such rhapsodies in its
praise that the whole world credited them--until it acquired personal
experience of the matter.
Italy is beautiful; it is charming and delightful; but seldom is this
true in winter or early spring.
The horses went along at a spanking pace that was astonishing. They
passed through the picturesque lanes of Sorrento, climbed the further
slope, and brought the carriage to the other side of the peninsula,
where the girls obtained their first view of the Gulf of Salerno, with
the lovely Isles of the Sirens lying just beneath them.
And now they were on the great road that skirts the coast as far as
Salerno, and has no duplicate in all the known world. For it is cut from
the solid rock of precipitous cliffs rising straight from the sea, which
the highway overhangs at an average height of five hundred feet, the
traveller being protected only by a low stone parapet from the vast gulf
that yawns beneath. And on the other side of the road the cliffs
continue to ascend a like distance toward the sky, their irregular
surfaces dotted with wonderful houses that cling to the slopes, and
vineyards that look as though they might slip down at any moment upon
the heads of timorous pilgrims.
When it rained they put up the carriage top, which afforded but partial
shelter. The shower was brief, but was shortly followed by hail as big
as peas, which threatened to dash in the frail roof of their _carrozza_.
While they shrank huddled beneath the blankets, the sun came out
suddenly, and the driver shed his leathern apron, cracked his whip, and
began singing merrily as the vehicle rolled over the smooth road.
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