TURIN, March 18, 1765.
DEAR SIR,--Turin is about thirty leagues from Nice, the greater part of
the way lying over frightful mountains covered with snow. The
difficulty of the road, however, reaches no farther than Coni, from
whence there is an open highway through a fine plain country, as far as
the capital of Piedmont, and the traveller is accommodated with chaise
and horses to proceed either post, or by cambiatura, as in other parts
of Italy. There are only two ways of performing the journey over the
mountains from Nice; one is to ride a mule-back, and the other to be
carried in a chair. The former I chose, and set out with my servant on
the seventh day of February at two in the afternoon. I was hardly clear
of Nice, when it began to rain so hard that in less than an hour the
mud was half a foot deep in many parts of the road. This was the only
inconvenience we suffered, the way being in other respects practicable
enough; for there is but one small hill to cross on this side of the
village of L'Escarene, where we arrived about six in the evening. The
ground in this neighbourhood is tolerably cultivated, and the mountains
are planted to the tops with olive trees. The accommodation here is so
very bad, that I had no inclination to be a-bed longer than was
absolutely necessary for refreshment; and therefore I proceeded on my
journey at two in the morning, conducted by a guide, whom I hired for
this purpose at the rate of three livres a day. Having ascended one
side, and descended the other, of the mountain called Braus, which took
up four hours, though the road is not bad, we at six reached the
village of Sospello, which is agreeably situated in a small valley,
surrounded by prodigious high and barren mountains. This little plain
is pretty fertile, and being watered by a pleasant stream, forms a
delightful contrast with the hideous rocks that surround it. Having
reposed myself and my mules two hours at this place, we continued our
journey over the second mountain, called Brovis, which is rather more
considerable than the first, and in four hours arrived at La Giandola,
a tolerable inn situated betwixt the high road and a small river, about
a gunshot from the town of Brieglie, which we leave on the right. As we
jogged along in the grey of the morning, I was a little startled at two
figures which I saw before me, and began to put my pistols in order. It
must be observed that these mountains are infested with contrabandiers,
a set of smuggling peasants, very bold and desperate, who make a
traffic of selling tobacco, salt, and other merchandize, which have not
payed duty, and sometimes lay travellers under contribution. I did not
doubt but there was a gang of these free-booters at hand; but as no
more than two persons appeared, I resolved to let them know we were
prepared for defence, and fired one of my pistols, in hope that the
report of it, echoed from the surrounding rocks, would produce a proper
effect: but, the mountains and roads being entirely covered with snow
to a considerable depth, there was little or no reverberation, and the
sound was not louder than that of a pop-gun, although the piece
contained a good charge of powder. Nevertheless, it did not fail to
engage the attention of the strangers, one of whom immediately wheeled
to the left about, and being by this time very near me, gave me an
opportunity of contemplating his whole person. He was very tall,
meagre, and yellow, with a long hooked nose, and small twinkling eyes.
His head was eased in a woollen night-cap, over which he wore a flapped
hat; he had a silk handkerchief about his neck, and his mouth was
furnished with a short wooden pipe, from which he discharged wreathing
clouds of tobacco-smoke. He was wrapped in a kind of capot of green
bays, lined with wolf-skin, had a pair of monstrous boots, quilted on
the inside with cotton, was almost covered with dirt, and rode a mule
so low that his long legs hung dangling within six inches of the
ground. This grotesque figure was so much more ludicrous than terrible,
that I could not help laughing; when, taking his pipe out of his mouth,
he very politely accosted me by name. You may easily guess I was
exceedingly surprised at such an address on the top of the mountain
Brovis: but he forthwith put an end to it too, by discovering himself
to be the marquis M--, whom I had the honour to be acquainted with at
Nice. After having rallied him upon his equipage, he gave me to
understand he had set out from Nice the morning of the same day that I
departed; that he was going to Turin, and that he had sent one of his
servants before him to Coni with his baggage. Knowing him to be an
agreeable companion, I was glad of this encounter, and we resolved to
travel the rest of the way together. We dined at La Giandola, and in
the afternoon rode along the little river Roida, which runs in a bottom
between frightful precipices, and in several places forms natural
cascades, the noise of which had well-nigh deprived us of the sense of
hearing; after a winding course among these mountains, it discharges
itself into the Mediterranean at Vintimiglia, in the territory of
Genoa. As the snow did not lie on these mountains, when we cracked our
whips, there was such a repercussion of the sound as is altogether
inconceivable. We passed by the village of Saorgio, situated on an
eminence, where there is a small fortress which commands the whole
pass, and in five hours arrived at our inn, on this side the Col de
Tende, where we took up our quarters, but had very little reason to
boast of our entertainment. Our greatest difficulty, however, consisted
in pulling off the marquis's boots, which were of the kind called
Seafarot, by this time so loaded with dirt on the outside, and so
swelled with the rain within, that he could neither drag them after him
as he walked, nor disencumber his legs of them, without such violence
as seemed almost sufficient to tear him limb from limb. In a word, we
were obliged to tie a rope about his heel, and all the people in the
house assisting to pull, the poor marquis was drawn from one end of the
apartment to the other before the boot would give way: at last his legs
were happily disengaged, and the machines carefully dried and stuffed
for next day's journey.
We took our departure from hence at three in the morning, and at four,
began to mount the Col de Tende, which is by far the highest mountain
in the whole journey: it was now quite covered with snow, which at the
top of it was near twenty feet thick. Half way up, there are quarters
for a detachment of soldiers, posted here to prevent smuggling, and an
inn called La Ca, which in the language of the country signifies the
house. At this place, we hired six men to assist us in ascending the
mountain, each of them provided with a kind of hough to break the ice,
and make a sort of steps for the mules. When we were near the top,
however, we were obliged to alight, and climb the mountain supported
each by two of those men, called Coulants who walk upon the snow with
great firmness and security. We were followed by the mules, and though
they are very sure-footed animals, and were frost-shod for the
occasion, they stumbled and fell very often; the ice being so hard that
the sharp-headed nails in their shoes could not penetrate. Having
reached the top of this mountain, from whence there is no prospect but
of other rocks and mountains, we prepared for descending on the other
side by the Leze, which is an occasional sledge made of two pieces of
wood, carried up by the Coulants for this purpose. I did not much
relish this kind of carriage, especially as the mountain was very
steep, and covered with such a thick fog that we could hardly see two
or three yards before us. Nevertheless, our guides were so confident,
and my companion, who had passed the same way on other occasions, was
so secure, that I ventured to place myself on this machine, one of the
coulants standing behind me, and the other sitting before, as the
conductor, with his feet paddling among the snow, in order to moderate
the velocity of its descent. Thus accommodated, we descended the
mountain with such rapidity, that in an hour we reached Limon, which is
the native place of almost all the muleteers who transport merchandize
from Nice to Coni and Turin. Here we waited full two hours for the
mules, which travelled with the servants by the common road. To each of
the coulants we paid forty sols, which are nearly equal to two
shillings sterling. Leaving Limon, we were in two hours quite
disengaged from the gorges of the mountains, which are partly covered
with wood and pasturage, though altogether inaccessible, except in
summer; but from the foot of the Col de Tende, the road lies through a
plain all the way to Turin. We took six hours to travel from the inn
where we had lodged over the mountain to Limon, and five hours from
thence to Coni. Here we found our baggage, which we had sent off by the
carriers one day before we departed from Nice; and here we dismissed
our guides, together with the mules. In winter, you have a mule for
this whole journey at the rate of twenty livres; and the guides are
payed at the rate of two livres a day, reckoning six days, three for
the journey to Coni, and three for their return to Nice. We set out so
early in the morning in order to avoid the inconveniencies and dangers
that attend the passage of this mountain. The first of these arises
from your meeting with long strings of loaded mules in a slippery road,
the breadth of which does not exceed a foot and an half. As it is
altogether impossible for two mules to pass each other in such a narrow
path, the muleteers have made doublings or elbows in different parts,
and when the troops of mules meet, the least numerous is obliged to
turn off into one of these doublings, and there halt until the others
are past. Travellers, in order to avoid this disagreeable delay, which
is the more vexatious, considering the excessive cold, begin the ascent
of the mountain early in the morning before the mules quit their inns.
But the great danger of travelling here when the sun is up, proceeds
from what they call the Valanches. These are balls of snow detached
from the mountains which over-top the road, either by the heat of the
sun, or the humidity of the weather. A piece of snow thus loosened from
the rock, though perhaps not above three or four feet in diameter,
increases sometimes in its descent to such a degree, as to become two
hundred paces in length, and rolls down with such rapidity, that the
traveller is crushed to death before he can make three steps on the
road. These dreadful heaps drag every thing along with them in their
descent. They tear up huge trees by the roots, and if they chance to
fall upon a house, demolish it to the foundation. Accidents of this
nature seldom happen in the winter while the weather is dry; and yet
scarce a year passes in which some mules and their drivers do not
perish by the valanches. At Coni we found the countess C-- from Nice,
who had made the same journey in a chair, carried by porters. This is
no other than a common elbow-chair of wood, with a straw bottom,
covered above with waxed cloth, to protect the traveller from the rain
or snow, and provided with a foot-board upon which the feet rest.
It is carried like a sedan-chair; and for this purpose six or eight
porters are employed at the rate of three or four livres a head per
day, according to the season, allowing three days for their return. Of
these six men, two are between the poles carrying like common chairmen,
and each of these is supported by the other two, one at each hand: but
as those in the middle sustain the greatest burthen, they are relieved
by the others in a regular rotation. In descending the mountain, they
carry the poles on their shoulders, and in that case, four men are
employed, one at each end.
At Coni, you may have a chaise to go with the same horses to Turin, for
which you pay fifteen livres, and are a day and a half on the way. You
may post it, however, in one day, and then the price is seven livres
ten sols per post, and ten sols to the postilion. The method we took
was that of cambiatura. This is a chaise with horses shifted at the
same stages that are used in posting: but as it is supposed to move
slower, we pay but five livres per post, and ten sols to the postilion.
In order to quicken its pace, we gave ten sols extraordinary to each
postilion, and for this gratification, he drove us even faster than the
post. The chaises are like those of Italy, and will take on near two
hundred weight of baggage.
Coni is situated between two small streams, and though neither very
large nor populous, is considerable for the strength of its
fortifications. It is honoured with the title of the Maiden-Fortress,
because though several times besieged, it was never taken. The prince
of Conti invested it in the war of 1744; but he was obliged to raise
the siege, after having given battle to the king of Sardinia. The place
was gallantly defended by the baron Leutrum, a German protestant, the
best general in the Sardinian service: but what contributed most to the
miscarriage of the enemy, was a long tract of heavy rains, which
destroyed all their works, and rendered their advances impracticable.
I need not tell you that Piedmont is one of the most fertile and
agreeable countries in Europe, and this the most agreeable part of all
Piedmont, though it now appeared to disadvantage from the rigorous
season of the year: I shall only observe that we passed through
Sabellian, which is a considerable town, and arrived in the evening at
Turin. We entered this fine city by the gate of Nice, and passing
through the elegant Piazza di San Carlo, took up our quarters at the
Bona Fama, which stands at one corner of the great square, called La
Piazza Castel.
Were I even disposed to give a description of Turin, I should be
obliged to postpone it till another opportunity, having no room at
present to say any thing more, but that I am always--Yours.