. En route; a descriptive automobile tour through nine countries & over nineteen great passes of Europe . scenery is very beautiful. Theroad follows the railway till it reaches Prato inToscana, from the pulpit of whose cathedral isexhibited on favoured occasions the girdle of theVirgin. The road now turns into the Apenninesand ascends the Valley of the Bisenzio, passingthrough many little villages to whose hospitalityGp^ribaldi owed his escape from the Austriantyrants. Keaching Mercatale, the road crosses anarrow gorge and commences to rise rapidly. Half-way up the ascent we encountered a stor
. En route; a descriptive automobile tour through nine countries & over nineteen great passes of Europe . scenery is very beautiful. Theroad follows the railway till it reaches Prato inToscana, from the pulpit of whose cathedral isexhibited on favoured occasions the girdle of theVirgin. The road now turns into the Apenninesand ascends the Valley of the Bisenzio, passingthrough many little villages to whose hospitalityGp^ribaldi owed his escape from the Austriantyrants. Keaching Mercatale, the road crosses anarrow gorge and commences to rise rapidly. Half-way up the ascent we encountered a storm, and fora time were entirely enveloped in the clouds. Soon,however, the sun forced himself through the heavymists and shone with renewed brilliancy. Beneathus we could see the remains of the storm sullenlyretreating down the valley before the attack of thegood fairies of summer. La Serra is the summit,some 2500 feet above Florence, and from here theroad commences a long and easy descent. Somedistance further and we could see, far, far away,upon the point of a steep hill, the church of the170 ^ ^^ i. A FLYING GLIMPSE OF ITALY Campo Santo of Bologna. In the town itself thestreets are sheltered on either hand by archedcolonnades, a defence against snow and a sufficientreminder that we were now in the coldest city ofItaly. Bologna has many special sights to massive cathedral, her two handsome piazzas,especially the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, in whichUgo Bassi and Gavazzi preached the doctrine ofliberty, sowing the seed of future greatness in theminds of the people. Garibaldis name starts up atevery turn, even clinging to us at night in thefamous Hotel Brun. Also Bologna boasts the pos-session of two leaning towers ; unlike the one atPisa, these campaniles are ugly in the extreme,being square and built of brick. One, only 160 feethigh, is ten feet out of the perpendicular and closedas unsafe ; the other rises beside it—320 feet—likean immense square chimney, and is fo
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