Italian Highways and Byways from a Motor Car

bilist would appreciate this more if the Latin would keep his great highways (a tradition lef

, and whether one journeys by the railway, by automobile or by the more humble bicycle, he finds a genial reception everywhere, though coupled with it is always an abounding curiosity which is at times ann

of the north and south thoroughfares in Italy have been lately so sadly ne

ver the Alpine passes, in time of snow and ice and rain-if they are not actually buried under-are thoroughly good roads. They are built on different lines. Road-building is a national affair in Italy as it is in France, but the central power does not ramify its forces in all directions as it does across the border. There is only one kind of road-building worth taking into consideration, and that is national road-bu

a and its formalities, and Ventimiglia, or at least San Remo, twenty-five kilometres away, punctures his tires one, three or five times over a kilometr

things. This is not saying that good roads do not exist in Italy. Far from it. But the good road in Italy suddenly descends into a bad road for a dozen kilometres a

Romans were great exploiters beyond the frontiers and often left things at home t

ian or ?milian Ways) is well known to all automobilists entering Naples via Posilippo. It runs through

rian, wrote of it as a narrow, gloomy pass, and medi?val superstition claimed it as the work of necromancy, since the hand of man never could have achieved it. The foundation of the roadway is well authenticated by history however. In 1442 Alphonso I, the S

eographies and histories of our schooldays are now replaced by modern thoroughfares which, however, in many cases, follow, or frequently cut in on, the old itineraries. Of these old Ro

s a delightfully varied itinerary that one covers in following up this old Roman road from Placentia (Piacenza) to Ariminum (Rimini), and should indeed be followed leisurely from en

ncient and modern place

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nnines to Piacenza. It was the route traced by a part of the itinerary of Dante in the "Divina Commedia," and a

n coast from Nice to Spezia, continuing thence to Rome by the Via Aurelia. This coast road of

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y of the Romans, though indeed its original construction by Appius Claudius only extended to Capua. The great highroads proceeding

than our own mile. These mile-stones of Roman times, many of which are still above ground (milliarii lapides), were sometimes round and s

f the Consul or Emperor under whom each stone

tomobilist appreciates the development of this accessory next to good roads themselves, and if he stops to thin

s not the automobilist's fault, such an occurrence, nor the ox-driver's either; but for fifty kilometres after leaving Spezia, and until Lucca and Livorno are reached, this is what may happen every half hour, and you have no recourse except to accept the situation with fortitude and revile the administration for allowing a roadway to wear down to such a state, or for not providing a parallel thoroughfare

h by no means are they more attractive to the tourist by road. This is best exemplified by a comp

ving by the Porta Romana, two kilometres of treacherous, narrow thoroughfare, though readily enough traced because it is in a bee-line. The details are here given as being typical of what the automobilist may expect to find in the smaller Italian cities.

tes of Rome, for the most part a fair road, but rising and falling from o

seventeen per cent. grade. This was negotiated readily enough, since it was of brief extent, but another rise of twenty-five per cent. (it looked forty-five from the cushions of a low-hung car) followed and on this we could do nothing. Fortunately ther

on this same road that one remarks from a great distance the towers of Spoleto piercing the sky at a seemingly enormous height, while the back

ceptibly, but here, in ten kilometres, say half a dozen miles, the Strada di grande Communicazione r

ia Vallombrosa and Frosinone, but that via Velletri, Terracina and Gaeta. Here the highroad is nearly flat, though truth to tell of none too good surface, all the way to Nap

hobby of studying the road-building systems of the countries through which he travels. Of the Pontine Marshes themselves it is certain that they are not salubrious, and malaria is most prevalent near them. Appius Claudius, in 312 B. C., tried to drain the marsh and so did C

valleys and those crossing the Oberland and, further east, those in communication with the Austrian Tyrol. On the west these converge on Milan and Turin via the

from Turin into France; via Susa and the Col du Mont Genevre to Brian?on, and via Mont Cenis to Modane and Grenoble;

famous road over the Simplon Pass, at an elevation of 2,008 metres above the sea. By this road, the b

oon the vineyards and all the signs of the insect life of the southland meet the eye. Italy has at last been reached, no more eternal snow and ice, no more peaked rooftops, the whole regi

confounded with those of the Grand and Petit Saint Bernard. The present roadway dates from 1822, when it was built by the engineer Pocobelle, at the joint expense of the Sardini

y it was known as the Vogelberg. A mission brother, Bernardino of Siena, preaching the gospel

s along a shelf beside the precipice, and here and there cr

ruptly than that on the north. The coach driver may trot his horses down hill, though, so well has the descent been

3 to compete with the new-made road a few kilometres to the west over the Bernardino which favoured Switzerland and Germany and took no consideration whatever of the interes

place of residence as one can possibly conceive as existing on the earth's surface. One forgets entirely that it is very nearly the heart of civilized Europe; there is nothing within view

the pass in 1800 when but a mere trail existed, b

ring work of note is met a little farther on in the Gorge of San Giacomo, a work completed by Carlo Donegani in the rei

estone of old has ceased to serve its purpose, though solitary examples still exist, and their place is taken by the governmental "bornes" a

Italiano are distinctly good as far

there one is sure of finding the best welcome and the best accommodations for man and his modern beas

f the Ordnance Survey in England or of the état Major in France, but they are practic

uthenticated, recent sources of information. Little discrepancies such as just where a railway crosses a road, etc., etc., are frequently to be noted. This is perhaps a small matter, but the genuine vagabond tourist, whether he is plodding along on foot or rolling smoothly on his five inch pneumatics, likes to know his exact whereabouts at every step of the way. On the whole t

cision, also marking the good, mediocre and bad roads. This is important but, as the writer has so often found that a good road of yesterday has become a bad road of to-day, and will be perhaps a worse one to-morrow, he realizes that the fluctuating quality of Italian ro

pal towns-presented gratis to members-is all but indispensable, while the three pocket volumes entitled Strade di Grande Communicazione, with the kilometric distances between all Italian places except the merest hamlets and the pr