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Show :i 1 ' A i : e , ' v , - " ' $ s v - ' A " " ,. - f.wj.sfs!W', zrmx, .... -,Ai- ... &."" :4tm ' 2 I Lake Garda, looking from riva (Clinton Si-ollarrt, In the New York Snn.) SHOULD you ask what is the charm of Riva and Lake Garda I should answer that it is well-nigh well-nigh impossible to put anything so elusive Into words. Perhaps It Is summed up in the endless change of majestic and solemn mountains moun-tains and the eternal variety of a most beautiful lake, and yet this does not tell it all. But sitting amid the palms and oleanders by the lake shore one is content with present loveliness and has no desire to analyze. So it is, too, If one strays about the narrow streets of the old town, with Its one medieval gateway reminiscent of days when all folk were wall dwellers, with Its modern mod-ern yet moated barracks that stand upon the site of an ancient castle of the Veronese Scaligers, and with its great baroque parish church, under the shadow of which In the morning coolness the fruit sellers gather with great hampers of figs, peaches, plums and grapes. You may climb, If you will, by lanes and olive terraces to a circular bastion erected upon the mountainside by the Venetians, a huge mass of masonry dominating the town and harbor, and get one of your first impressions of the glory of Garda, and whether you take this little excursion In the gold of early day or in the placid light of afternoon your recompense will be equally great. Delights Eye of Visitor. ' You will have outspread below you something no less than magical in shifting lights and shades upon water and slopes and crests and red tiled roofs, and each succeeding moment will add to the marvel of the blended whole. We will then accept the charm of Riva and of Garda, for it is indubitable, in-dubitable, nor does it lessen with a succession of davs or even weeks. One afternoon when the sun had dipped behind the crest of La Rochetta as I was loitering on the horse chestnut shaded promenade by the harbor the Ponale road drew me like a magnet. It begins to rise in a gentle slope by the public washhouses, where all Riva Beemlngly has' its laundering done. At long tubs at least twenty women were at work, scrubbing, pounding, wringing and rinsing, and raising during dur-ing the process ah Incessant chatter. Without and within and upon the rail-guarded roof of a small shedliko structure hard at hand fully as many young children were wrestling, rolling, tumbling and twisting, joining their cries to those of their mothers, who gave them not the slightest heed, though hair was rent, scratches were many and tears flowed in Bummer showers down pain or rage-distorted faces. Road Hewn From the Rock. Just beyond the Qual hotel, rising from the lake's verge in five stories, having Its entrance, however, at the topmost, were baths with huge staring signs, but they were bare of bathers. Going with me up the incline were other pedestrians, some in Tyrolese costume, Germans in "knickers" and ponderous hobnailed shoes, women with alpenstocks, who clearly (from their high-heeled boots) had never climbed a rod; leisurely Italians, workmen and gentlefolk. From almost the very outset the road is hewn out of the limestone mountainside. There are occasional artificial buttresses to support it, but for the greater part It has for its foundation foun-dation the eternal rock. The angle at which It ascends varies, but it is never abrupt; consequently I encountered single horses, oxen and mules drawing loads with no inconsiderable weight. I paused at the first wide curve to look back upon tha town, and a wondrous won-drous panorama the bay and buildings i and the distant rock of Arco and the engirdling ranges made, for the immediate im-mediate foreground was In shadow and the remoter slopes and crests were still flooded with the soft light of the declining sun. I had started with the intention of turning back from this point of vantage, but on descrying, descry-ing, beyond two or three adjacent turns, a tunnel through the jutting cliff, I allowed myself to be led on as far as its mouth. Thus was my fate sealed. With each bend there was a new lure. Once having yielded 1 wa3 henceforth captive cap-tive to progress the goal of my journey jour-ney being the entrance to the Val di Ledro, where the road makes an abrupt Bwerve Into a precipitous mountain gorge. Lake Viewed From Above. The lake below me was faint purple In the shadow of the cliffs, while beyond, be-yond, where the golden light still touched the water, it was a delicate shade of turquoise. Rowboats, drifting drift-ing or in motion, shrunk in size to toy craft, and theii rowers were like pygmies working automatically. The white and saffron and umber sails that dotted the lake's bosom seemed no more than bo many taut or flapping flags. Leaning over the parapetlike wall that guards the road I observed that in many places the descent was sheer, in others there were jutting crags carpeted with coarse grass and drooping droop-ing sprays of a faintly crimson flower. At length I came to a tunnel that was guarded both at the near and the further entrance by huge grated iron gates that were backswung. Above upon an outlook reached by a zigzag path was a sentry box. This was the boundary between Austria and Italy, and I later learned that in certain well chosen Dlaces the Ponale road is mined and Is likely, in the event of hostilities between the two countries, to be rendered in an eye twinkling unusable. A second series of gates succeeded the first, and here there were barbed wire entanglements entangle-ments as well as threatening looking lines of loopholes staring at me from a small but massive one-storied structure struc-ture built Into the mountainside. Famous Old Stronghold. As one draws toward Malcesine, on the eastern shore, the Imposing bulk of its castle looms up boldly. This fortress marks the rule of that princely prince-ly family of Verona, the Scaligers, and its crenelated tower and grand sweep of battlements are among the most striking features upon the lake. At their massive base the town washing was being done, and some enterprising boatmen were calking a fishing schooner schoon-er in a little bay adjacent. At the landing fruit women were clamorous and a Malcesine dog added his exclamatory ex-clamatory voice to theirs. To the south the beetling height of Monte Castello now became prominent, not again to be lost sight of a mountain moun-tain headland rising sheer from the lake's border, with a church nestling just below its crest. As we bore toward to-ward the Tremosine landing I began to wonder where the town was. At first glance there was nothing visible save the wharf and an almost perpendicular cliff. Then I chanced to follow the line of the precipice to its top, an elevation of more than 1,300 feet, and there, hanging upon the very verge, was a cluster of houses. As we approached I descried two windlasses one at the lake's edge and one at the cliff's crown connected by seemingly slender wire cables. These, It proved, were used for hoisting provisions and building material and for letting down whatsoever of produce the villagers and mountain dwellers desire to export. |