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Venice, Italy
August 4, 1906
C. D. Vasse.
Dear Charles:
We came here last Monday. We had a rather warm and tedious trip over and through the Apanine mountains, having in a distance of 25 to 40 miles to pass through, I believe, fifty tunnels, which made it dusty and disagreeable, but when we were out of them the scenery was delightful. After we passed over the mountains we came to the valley of the River Po, which is beautiful and is the only real nice farming land I have seen in the country. The country has generally been mountainous and rocky. This resembles out prairie lands and is very fertile and in a high state of cultivation, with farm houses very numerous and villages every few miles. The farmers were in the midst of harvest, and crops seemed to be excellent. We, we have reached this city about 10 o'clock p.m., having traveled a distance of 180 miles in seven hours, but we had to cross over the mountains; as a rule they make faster time than that.
Well, Venice is a city in the sea in reality. We left the railroad station and walked a short distance, twenty yards possible, to the Grand Canal, where we took a gondola with one oarsman and came to this hotel, a distance of two miles. We have been here six days, and we have not seen a wheeled vehicle of any description except one or two wheelbarrows. There is no danger of getting run over here by cars, carriages, or any other wheeled vehicle; all traffic and traveling is done by boats. They have a line of boats on the Grand Canal which they use as we do our street cars. They have stations close to each other where they stop and let off and take on passengers. They charge two cents. For long distances I presume they charge more. Their canals have fine stone bridges, so you can go to any part of the business part of the city either on foot or by boat, as you choose. The canals are very crooked and there are many short turns to be made; and at night, also in daylight, your oarsman will always yell out before making the turn, to give warning of his approach so as not to come in collision with some other boat.
We have all enjoyed it very much and will leave on Monday, the 6th, for Milan. This place has a population of 150,000 people, 25 per cent of whom are not self-supporting, or in other words, are beggars. Every night out on the water there are regular concerts on boats, which are beautifully lighted up with paper lanterns, three or four of them, where they have the music, both instrumental and vocal. The small boats will take you out for 20 cents per hour and stay as long as you wish. I have seen as many as 150 of them huddled around the minstrel boat, and every five or ten minutes the hat will be passed around for donations. The man with the hat steps from one boat to another. You contribute usually one or two cents each time.
Well, I am at the end of my paper. We are all well. With love, as ever,
G. W. Taylor
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From Milan, Italy
I received your very kind letter of July 23rd at Venice just as we were leaving there on Monday. We reached this city at 8 o'clock p.m., a distance from Venice of 160 miles. We were all so well pleased with Venice that we could hardly make up our minds to leave so soon. We were there one week. We are now in the second largest city in Italy, containing a population of 500,000, and it is a prosperous and business city. It is the greatest manufacturing city in Italy. The National Exposition is being held here, and we were out at it to-day. They have some very fine exhibits, but it is certainly a tame affair compared with the St. Louis Exposition. There were not as many people on the grounds apparently as we have the fair down on Sugar Creek. I presume when the weather becomes cooler there will be more. They had a very destructive fire there a few days before we came here, which destroyed many buildings and much property. We will leave here to-morrow evening and go to Switzerland, two hour's run from here. We are now going to the most delightful mountain scenery in the world (said to be). I can tell more about it after I have seen it. We were in the silk manufacturing department at the Exposition to-day which was very interesting. We saw the young worms being fed on the mulberry leaves and then the next size and so on up to the grown worm, when they make the cocoons, and following up until they are gathered and placed in boiling water to destroy the worm before it destroys the cocoon. Then we saw how the silk is spun and woven and the goods after completed. It is wonderful what processes it has to go through before it is ready for the loom.
Well, we are all well, although the weather is simply hot, but when we get to the mountains we hope for cooler nights and better water. To-morrow we go through the recently completed tunnel through the Alps for a distance of seventeen miles between Italy and Switzerland. We enter it in Italy and come out in Switzerland. I would rather not go through it, but it must be done to make our route complete. I often wish you were here to see this country and the people. I attended church here on Tuesday at the Milan cathedral, which required one hundred years in its construction and is said to be the largest and finest in the world. It is worth a trip here to see it.
Thursday morning, August 10th. -- I was called last night before I finished my letter, and I will now complete it. This is a very pleasant morning; it is cloudy and cool, if it will only remain so during the day. I have found the nights all cool and pleasant, but out in the sun it is very hot. Well, I will write again when we are temporarily located. We all wish you were here with us. With love to all, I am, as ever, yours truly,
G. W. Taylor
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