An American Glances at Switzerland: Horace Greeley's Swiss Journey 1851

Authors

Keywords

Swiss American Historical Society, American, Horace Greeley

Abstract

I left Milan an 5 o'clock on the morning of the 10th, via Railroad to Como, at the foot of the Lake of like name, which we reached in an hour and a half, thence taking the Swiss Government Diligence for this place, via the pass of St. Gothard. Even before reaching Como (only some twenty miles from Milan), the spurs of the Alps had begun to gather around us, and the little Lake itself is completely embosomed by them. Barely skirting its southern border, we crossed the Swiss frontier and bade adieu to the Passport swindle for a season, crossed a ridge into the valley of Lake Lugano, which we skirted for two-thirds its length, crossing it by a fine stone ridge near its center. (All the Swiss lakes I have seen are very narrow for a good part of their length, of a greenish blue color, derived from the mountain snows, very irregular in their form, being shut in, narrowed and distorted by the bold cliffs which crowd them on one side or on both, often reducing them to a crooked strait, resembling the passage of the Highlands by the Hudson.) Threading the narrow streets of the pleasant village of Lugano, we struck bolding up the hill to the east, and over it into the valley of the little river Ticino, which we reached at Bellizona, a smart town of some five to ten thousand inhabitants, and followed the river thence to its source in the eternal snows of Mount St. Gothard, All this is, I believe, in the Canton of Ticino, in which Italian is the common language, and of which Bellizona is the chief town.

Recommended Citation

(1974) "An American Glances at Switzerland: Horace Greeley's Swiss Journey 1851," Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter: Vol. 10: Iss. 2, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_newsletter/vol10/iss2/5