I remember
in the Val Mastallone seeing a votive picture of a poor lady in a
short petticoat and trousers trimmed with red round the bottom who
was falling head foremost from the top of a high tree, whose leaves
she had been picking, and was being saved by the intervention of
two saints who caught her upon two gridirons. Such accidents,
however, and, I should think, such interventions, are exceedingly
rare, and as a rule the peasants venture freely into places which
in England no one but a sailor or a steeple-jack would attempt.
And so we left this part of Italy, wishing that more Hugo de
Montboissiers had committed more crimes and had had to expiate them
by building more sanctuaries.
CHAPTER XI - Lanzo
From S. Ambrogio we went to Turin, a city so well known that I need
not describe it. The Hotel Europa is the best, and, indeed, one of
the best hotels on the continent. Nothing can exceed it for
comfort and good cookery. The gallery of old masters contains some
great gems. Especially remarkable are two pictures of Tobias and
the angel, by Antonio Pollaiuolo and Sandro Botticelli; and a
magnificent tempera painting of the Crucifixion, by Gaudenzio
Ferrari - one of his very finest works. There are also several
other pictures by the same master, but the Crucifixion is the best.
From Turin I went alone to Lanzo, about an hour and a half's
railway journey from Turin, and found a comfortable inn, the Hotel
de la Poste. There is a fine fourteenth-century tower here, and
the general effect of the town is good.
One morning while I was getting my breakfast, English fashion, with
some cutlets to accompany my bread and butter, I saw an elderly
Italian gentleman, with his hand up to his chin, eyeing me with
thoughtful interest. After a time he broke silence.
"Ed il latte," he said, "serve per la suppa." {21}
I said that that was the view we took of it. He thought it over a
while, and then feelingly exclaimed -
"Oh bel!"
Soon afterwards he left me with the words -
"La! dunque! cerrea! chow! stia bene."
"La" is a very common close to an Italian conversation. I used to
be a little afraid of it at first. It sounds rather like saying,
"There, that's that. Please to bear in mind that I talked to you
very nicely, and let you bore me for a long time; I think I have
now done the thing handsomely, so you'll be good enough to score me
one and let me go." But I soon found out that it was quite a
friendly and civil way of saying good-bye.
