Pilgrims of •To-da

" The mother of months in meadow' and plain,- Fills the shadows and windy places With lisp of leaves and ripple of rein."

(Chorus of Atalanta in Calydon.) THE time of the singing birds is come, when " longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, as Chaucer says. The high-roads and the by-roads of the world are many, and my space is small. As usual, I am daunted by the task of trying to compress into a few wretched paragraphs all that I desire to say to fellow- travellers, that company of the elect who view the world as their garden and long to see all its glories. True, we cannot ever do that. Travel as we will, view we the earth with never so discerning eyes, we shall never compass a tenth of its beauties and delights. Indeed, if we travel only in order to see as much as we can in a given time, we but voyage away from ourselves. It is only the mind that apprehends, the spirit that reflects, that will rightly appreciate the infinite range that modern invention has given to us in this age of comfortable and certain travel. We can be in Italy in twenty- four hours : princes and prelates of the Middle Ages took weeks over the same journey. Where we dive through the Simplon, they toiled for long days up the passes on the road to Rome.

* * * *

Every traveller worthy of the name knows Italy, or some part of it. All I need do in these notes is to refer intending visitors to the Italian Travel Bureau at Waterloo Place, S.W. 1, for from that office all kinds of information is available. It publishes Winter in Italy and Summer in Italy (2s. each), which are booklets comprehensive enough and pleasantly written withal, although I feel that there might be fuller statistics with regard to the prices and accommodation avail- able at various hotels. The Swiss are models in this respect. You are told in all their booklets exactly what you want to know, namely, the price en pension of every hotel in every town and village where you are likely to stay, together with all other relevant particulars. If France and Italy—and ourselves above all—would copy the methods of Switzerland more closely, .more tourists would be attracted. The visitor doesn't want word-pictures, however vivid, or illustrations, however alluring, but a quantity of plain, hard facts.

* * * *

Here are sonie useful facts about Italy. Roughly speaking; the first-class hotels on the Italian Lakes and Italian Riviera cost from 15s. to 25s., and second-class hotels from 12s. to 15s. a day, en pension, of course. In Naples and the neigh- bourhood, first-class hotels are a few shillings more and the second-class a few shillings less ; while in Sicily the first-class hotels range from 23s. to 80s., and the second from 14s. to 18s. More people than ever are going to Sicily this year, and the Villa Egeria claims quite rightly to be one of the best hotels in the world. I would also put in a word for Bertolinre, overlooking Naples. At this season of the year especially, with Vesuvius sombre against the twilight, the view as one dines on that veranda is one of the loveliest on earth. One pays for the view, of course; but I would rather pay to look over the Bay of Naples in its evening glory of gold and ultra- marine than pay for the privilege of being jostled by jazzers in any other fashionable cosmopolitan hotel.

* * * *

No doubt the fifty-per-cent. reduction on tickets from the Italian frontier to Sicily accounts for the increase of tourist traffic there. From London, via Mont Cenis, Turin, Rapallo, Pisa, Rome, Naples to Palermo and back costs about 110 10s. first class, and 211 10s. second class. The Islands of the Aegean have been opened up to tourist traffic of xecent, years, and a big new hotel, the Grand Hotel des Roses at Rhodes, is becoming very popular. It is managed by the Venice Hotel Company, and is directly on the water-front. It can be reached from Brindisi in sixty hours by steamer. From it wonderful expeditions can be made to Kos, beloved of Apollo; and -to Patmos, where St. John had the vision of the Apocalypse—yet I fear that the average visitor will rather regard the green baize of the baccarat table. - „

* * * *

Of Brioni I cannot write from personal experience, but it is rapidly becoming a rival of the Lido, and is a really gay place, not yet unduly expensive, and full of natural charm as well as human- attraction. - The golf cOursesof

a private course at the Villa d'Este on Lake- Como and the Menaggio course. At , Merano, one of the most charming climatic resorts in the Southern Alps, there is another course which, I am told, is excellent. Other courses are at Bogliaco, Bordighera, Brian', Florence; Karersee, Madonna di Cam- piglio, Palermo, Rome, Stresa, Varese and Viareggio. * * * * Writing of golf reminds me that the season at Montana, in Switzerland, begins in the middle of April. The plateau then is a .carpet of flowers, and the links, although somewhat -

rough,-are a delight to play on, owing to the magnificent air and unrivalled scenery. The Golf Hotel is well away from the sanatoria of the town, and the cuisine is excellent. The terms are moderate, ranging from 15 to 20 Swiss francs a day en pension, and the proprietor, as I know from personal experience, will do all in his power to promote the comfort of his guests. Switzerland in springtime has to be seen to be believed : it is really the most beautiful and the least crowded time, as it is also on the Italian Lakes, whose glory of blossom will fill the eyes with its wonder for the rest of the year.

* * * *

Although ski-ing is a thing of the past for this year in Switzerland, enthusiasts may still find a glowing sun travelling low along the southern horizon and crisp and genial snow in Norway. A fortnight's trip to Finse, in the centre of that country, is an ideal Easter holiday, and costs only £20 front Newcastle, via Bergen to Finse, and back, with all expenses, including tips. Finse, with its marvellous slopes, is the world's paradise for the ski-runner. The hotel has central heating and 120 beds, and is very comfortable. At Easter- time it is full of Norwegian and English 2people, and the evenings as gay as those in any Swiss winter-sports hotel. Another good ski-ing centre is the Grand Hotel at Are, in Sweden, which is seventeen hours from Stockholm and nine hours from Trondhjem, in Norway. Routes to Sweden are three :- 1. By Swedish Lloyd from Tilbury to Gothenburg, and thence to Are—forty hours boat and twenty-two hours rail, £10 Is. 3d. 2. London—Harwich—Esbjerg--Co.penhagen--Stockholm—Are —twenty-four hours boat and thirty-nine hours rail, £8 its. 3. London 'Harwich --- Hook -- Hamburg — Stockholm — Are—eleven hours boat and fifty hours rail, £9 18s. Bd.

The hotel at Are is cheap (about 10s. a day, en pension) and good, with magnificent ski excursions in the neighbourhood. It is 1,500 feet above sea-level. Many Lapp families with their herds camp here, so that the visitor may vary his ski excursions by trips in the reindeer-drawn " akja.' In Stock- holm itself, by the way, excellent ski-ing is to be had at the suburb of Saltsjiibaden, where there are also luxurious hotels. The winter season in Stockholm is very amusing.

* * * * Of the many cruises available at this time of year it would be invidious to select one or two for mention. The P. and 0., the Canadian Pacific, or Messrs. Cook's can supply all infor- mation. A word on the old question of tipping is never out of place at this time. I take the following from the letter of a correspondent relating to a spring cruise last year. His family consisted of a party of five, and he gave 10s. per head per week for the cabin and dining-room stewards, and a smaller amount for the bath, wine and smoking-mom stewards. His total tips worked out at about 8 per cent. of the total cost of his passage money. Thii is extremely liberal, of course, but, I think, a useful guide as to what to give if one wishes to be comfortable. It is useless to consider the ethics of the subject. Every old traveller knows he must tip. Ten per cent. added on to the hotel bill, as done in all Swiss hotels, ii obviously the right system and it should be adopted without delay in England, as it has been in Germany. * * * *

Bad Nauheim is not a place that many people would think of going to, except for medical treatment, yet it_ has many attractions, and is by no means expensive. During the off season, in a small hotel, the charges are 18 marks a day en pension. During the season (April 1st until September 80th) the prices are a few marks more, and about 20 marks in the first-class hotels, such as the Augusta Victoria. The ten per cent. tipping system is in vogue, but guests very foolishly are Inclined to give the servants something extra, a habit I hope our readers will discountenance. It is worth noting that there is very little difference between first and second class railway carriages in Germany, except in the colour of the 'cushions.

* * * * I have written nothing about England, for although we live on a small island, there are more varieties of scenery and more of interest and delight within these shores than any other place on earth. William Morris has gone on record as claiming Bibury to be the most beautiful village in England and its grey roots and its charming Colne uphold the claim, but all over the Cotswolds there are places of almost equal loveli- ness, and the Cotswolds are only a corner of England. * * * *

In these curtailed and random notes it has been impossible to touch on many subjects that would interest the intending traveller. My only hope is that I may have thrown out some suggestions which may be of value : any further information, either about the places mentioned, or concerning projected itineraries, will be gladly supplied on application to the Travel Editor, the Spectator, 18 York Street, W.C. 2.

THE TRAVEL EDITOR. .