Italian tour: 3,000 miles with Lunn

dream of lovliness with the red roofed houses clustering round the deep blue lake.

Como. Rather like Loch Ness with sheer cliffs, the line ran in & out of short tunnels right by the waters edge.

At Chassio. the Italian Customs officer came aboard. We were locked in the train & soldati patroled the line.

A big, jolly Italian came along surrounded by [geogious?] officials & asked us if we had anything to declare. I merely looked coy & said "non" which worked awfully well as he merely laughed & said "nien" & we'd no bother. He came by again & said to Di who was standing with me in the asle "Londre" & evedently thinking I spoke too impossible Italian "Roma" to which we did at least stammer " si - si."

our passports being collected in a bunch were returned when stamped by the simple

process of holding each up in turn for the rightful owner to claim by its photo & all the other occupants of the carrage could see how awful the picture was.

Reached Milan about 6 oc. Walked to our hotel. Here the numerous taxis are Fiats.

Noisy hotel. All night roars & squeaks came from the station nearby.

[photo/postcard] HOTEL DU NORD ET DES ANGLAIS - MILAN

We requested a conveyance to take us for a drive & a very smart 45. H.P. Fiat car appeared. Di & I sat in front to air our Italian on the driver, who was a perfect darling & nearly expired at my pronunciation! He taught us more words on that drive than we learnt on the whole tour. We saw the outside of the Cathedral - very dim with the 2,000 spires soaring up & the countless statues.

[postcard] MILANO, Piazzale Sempione - Arco della Pace.

Various interesting buildings were pointed out. I was specially pleased at seeing the office of Mussolini's own newspaper "El Popolo D'Italia"

We were all refreshed by our drive & the voluble driver. Passing a fat policeman on duty amid a sea of trafic he said "my frien'-" & making the car describe a semicircle round the man, he shouted a flood of Italian, winding up with "La belle Signorina" which of course pleased us immensely!

At dinner, Mr. Pinto our real conductor walked in & introduced himself.

[hotel ticket] HOTEL DU NORD MILANO Camera Chambre Room } N. 112 Mrs & Miss Handley L'Albergo non e responsabile che dei valori depositati al Burea.

Good Friday 29th. Very warm. Woke 5! a.m. breakfast was eaten so early that the black beetles were gaily returning home across the dining room floor. Aunty Fanny had been up even earlier, having had a ghost in her room during the night.

We rushed for the train. Lovely morning, the sun was'nt up but the moon shone cheerily.

[clipping] [overlapped clippings obscures text] Donald McLeish [?te]-PINNACLED CATHEDRAL, A MARVEL OF THE WORLD [?]conti, the Fabbrica del Duomo began work on their church in 1386, they had [?s] to be complete in the manner which the later builders of the Renaissance [?ith]white marble and adorned by 2,000 statues it stands at the very heart of [?] a wonder of Europe and a magnet that draws thousands to see it