EUROPE 305 



try, fifteen feet high perhaps and as many long, with 

 the boatmen leaning against it below or standing on 

 the top to steer with their long poles, without a new 

 sense of pleasure. 



Our leave-taking was quite impressive all the 

 three gondoliers brought bouquets to each one of us, 

 and as our padrona said, we had quite the air of 

 a floral procession. 



The change from the sirocco of Venice to these 

 mountain solitudes where the air is pure and fresh 

 and full of vitality is wonderful. We are now at 

 Perarolo, the sweetest little town with mountains 

 on either side and a rushing river, where the women 

 are washing their linen and the men are collect- 

 ing the timbers brought down on the stream and 

 putting them on rafts to transport them. 



Cortina, Val d'Ampezzo, August 2 



. . . MY chief pleasure here (and it is a very great 

 one), is in my morning tramps. I sometimes wonder 

 whether [if] you were here, you would join me in my 

 early cup of tea and be off by seven o'clock. As 

 my companions are not given to this style of en- 

 joyment, I go alone, and there is something rather 

 fascinating in the solitude. Occasionally I meet 

 not exactly with adventures for they do not deserve 

 so grand a name, but with incidents which are 

 sometimes interesting, and at least amusing. Yester- 

 day morning at the end of my ascent (which was 

 accompanied by magnificent views with endless 

 changes of light and shade all the way) I stopped 



