Travel
Crossing the Simplon into Italy
[We publish in this column articles and notes which may help our readers in their plans for travel at home and abroad. They will be written by correspondents who have visited the places described.] CERTAINLY one of the most popular ways into Italy for the motorist is over the Simplon Pass, even more popular than the St. Gothard on account of the finer scenery. During the present summer I have been twice over the Simplon by motor and once under it by electric train in the wonderful—as an engineering feat—Lotschberg-Simplon route, by which you go through the longest tunnel in the world speedily and without dirt owing to the electric engines. The ventilation is excellent and you experience no discomfort through the 12k ,miles for which you are in the bowels of the earth.
Motorists who have been detained in London by the Parliamentary session and are intending to visit Switzerland and Northern Italy this summer may be more interested in details of the drive over the Pass. Most people crossing the Simplon approach it from the west, coming by way of Geneva- Martigny-Sion by the good road along the Rhone Valley to Brigue, which is the starting-point. But many others coming from Central Switzerland or the Engadine approach it from the east. From Central Switzerland, you ascend the easy Briinig Pass to Meiringen, and then go along the rather narrow and difficult Grimsel Pass to Gletsch and turn westwards along the RhOne Valley. Both these roads are none too good, and on the former there are many hairpin bends. At Brigue the actual Simplon Pass starts, there is an excellent road the whole way from Brigue to Iselle on the Italian side with no frighten- ing hairpin bends or alarming heights to look over. So the novice may be recommended to cross the Simplon for his initiation into Alpine passes.
The distance from Brigue to Iselle is 29 miles, and as far as I recollect we took about 70 minutes. The best scenery is on the Swiss side looking back at the Rhone Valley, and once you leave Berisal (5,000 ft.) behind—where there is a simple but quite comfortable small hotel with an English clergyman in residence in the summer—you get magnificent views of the snowy peaks of the Bernese Alps. At the top of the Pass (6,580 ft.) is the excellent Bellevue Simplon-Kulm hotel, where English visitors are particularly well looked after by the friendly proprietress. Provided the weather is good—and this reservation applies to all mountain resorts—the Simplon- Kulm is an excellent centre for excursions.
The surroundings are entirely unspoilt, and as the number of motorists is limited—we only met fifteen cars on two journeys across the Simplon—your aesthetic sense is not jarred by picture-postcard and trophy- booths as it is some- times elsewhere. Within a minute of the hotel you can wan- der among undulating hummocks covered with " Alpine Roses " and other mountain flora, surrounded by a great circle of snow-capped mountains standing out vividly against the blue. It is very still up here save for the tinkling of the cattle bells, music to which you MN. e long become accustomed in the early summer in the mountains.
* * * * The Simplon road was constructed by order of Napoleon in 1801-7, and on the way you pass a rest-house with an inscription stating that the great man refreshed himself with a glass of milk there. The descent on the Italian side presents no dangers, but the scenery although very fine is not so magnificent as on the Swiss side, for you soon enter a rocky defile and your views are more impeded. You have to endure customs and passport formalities four times, but they are not very alarming, and the soldiers on duty enjoy a few minutes' friendly conversation. At one place your pass- port is inspected, at the next your car " papers "—and it is important at every frontier to see that the various counter- foils are properly filled in and stamped by the officials—and then a few kilometres along the road, across the frontier, the same procedure is gone through. Everything being in order, the chain is lowered and the road lies open to you to Italy and southern scenes. In few parts of the world is it possible to pass so quickly from northern scenery and flora to southern.
• * * Beyond the gallery of Gabi, as Baedeker informs you, begins the Ravine of Gondo, one of the wildest defiles in the Alps. The first Italian village is Paglino, and you soon see the tunnel from which, if you are ldcky, you may see the Blue Pullman Orient Express emerge on .its journey to Athens and Stamboul. Although you may have been to these places yourself, every time you see a train with a far destination marked on it you get a thrill and the wanderlust assails you. But your flights of imagination must be curtailed, for you are on Italian roads, and it is as well to be quite sure there are no loose bolts or screws on your car.
* * * * Why is it that the greatest nation of road-makers in the world should be satisfied with such bad roads in their own country ? Who has not seen hard-working Italians making roads in other parts of the world ? Yet once you leave the Simplon Pass and go along one of the main traffic arteries into Northern Italy, through Domodossola to the shores of Lake Maggiore you are jolted and " joggled " until every bone in your body aches and you thank your lucky stars you came provided with air cushions. It is not that modern Italy cannot make good roads, for there are the splendid autostrade from Milan to Arona, Milan to Varese, and Milan to Como to prove the opposite—roads as good as there are to be found anywhere. I would suggest, with all deference to Signor Mussolini, who has done such wonders for his country, that as a piece of national advertising he should turn his attention to this question. In the district of the Italian Lakes Italy possesses one of the world's most beautiful tourist centres. How much would the enjoyment of motorists be increased if the roads were equal in quality to that of even a second or third grade road in any part of England ! E. W.
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[We shall be glad to answer queries arising out of the Travel articles published in our columns. Inquiries should be addressed to the Travel Manager, The SPECTATOR, 99 Galan' Street, W.C.1.—Ed. SPECTATOR.]
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