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Main > Fairy tale > All authors > Frank Baum > Fairy tale "Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad"

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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