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Al Sempione. Le note di viaggio da Genova a Briga (1818 maggio 9-14)

Primo Autore:

Mary Berry

Secondo Autore:

 

Titolo:

Al Sempione. Le note di viaggio da Genova a Briga (1818 maggio 9-14)

Testo Completo:

Tuesday, 9th. - Left Genoa.

Wednesday, 10th. - Arrived at Milan.

Friday, 12th. - Left Milan: the posts in the Milanese partake a little of German slowness: reached Sesto Calende late. One side of the little inn is entirely covered with the branches of a large vine, and the house itself is situated on the banks of the beautiful river Ticino. A clear moon lighted up the scene, and has left on my mind a very agreeable remembrance of Sesto Calende.

Saturday, 13th. - Reached Duomo d`Ossola.

Sunday, 14th.- Left Duomo d`Ossola at six o`clock for the Pass of the Simplon. The first mile is along the valley, the ascent never very steep;¹ and apparently as much descending as ascending during the first stage. Two galleries through which the road passes, both very picturesque. One magnificent fall of the torrent by the side of the road, separated by a rock of enormous size. In the latter part of this stage, the finest possible mountain scenery, but completely Swiss, not at all Italian. Italy one leaves at Milan. Arrived at nine o`clock at Iselle; no horses, although only one carriage requiring four horses had gone before us; waited an hour for ours to be refreshed, in order to make three posts more. Arrived at the inn at Simplon after one o`clock. Here, again, no horses, and obliged to wait nearly two hours till ours were again refreshed ; from the inn at Simplon one is continually mounting for two hours and a half. The road winds through certainly the highest and most perpendicular masses of rock I ever beheld, till at last, where two torrents meet and occupy the whole space of the narrow cut in the rocks over which they pass, a stone bridge of a single handsome arch is thrown over one of them, and the road conducted along the side of the other, through the long gallery of rock. The scenery on this part of the road is sublime, without conveying any other ideas than those of awe and melancholy. Blasted pines and enormous inaccessible masses of bare rock seem to record the passage of the Great Destroyer rather than the creation of a Beneficent Being. I am glad to have seen this gigantic work of man in overcoming nature. As a military road and a military measure it was perhaps necessary, otherwise I must ever think it a misapplication of the immense powers of labour and money consigned for a time to the hands of a man who, in making the Simplon thought more of doing what nobody else would do than what in the ordinary course of human affairs was best to be done. It is useless to count on posting on this road as on the Mount Cenis; it is neither a commercial nor a post road; you meet nothing on it whatsoever but a travelling carriage like your own, of which you dread the sight, because it is sure to delay your progress. It is not to be supposed, therefore, that this mountain passage will long be passable,² as nature prevents its being open above four or five months in the twelve, and that nothing can make it worth while, or indeed possible, to be always on the watch (which is necessary) to keep it in repair for the passage of armies. We did not arrive at the inn at Brigge till near nine, having left Duomo d` Ossola at six.<sup>3


1</sup> The average slope nowhere exceeds 6 inches in 6 1/2 feet.- (Murray`s Handbook)
<sup>2</sup> The tempest of 1834 and 1839 fell with tremendous violence on the part of the road near Iselle, and destroyed it for a space of nearly eight miles - that is to say, for this distance the portion carried off was greater than that which was left. Everybridge of stone was swept away; in some instances even the materials of the bridge disappeared, and the place where it stood was not to be recognized (Murray`s Handbook).
³ The journey usually occupies ten hours. (Murray`s Handbook).

Note Bibliografiche:

testo tratto da Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry in tre volumi, London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1866, vol. 3, pp. 164-166.

A Cura di:

   [Mariateresa Wright]