The inns are excellent and the
inhabitants very civil. The Adige runs close to the road and parallel to
it, nearly the whole way to Bolsano or Botzen, where Italian ceases to be
spoken and German is the national tongue. Botzen is a large and flourishing
place.
One general description will serve for the Tyrol, regarding the towns,
adjacent country, customs, inns, inhabitants, dress and manners.
First the towns are fully as neat, clean and well built as those in
Switzerland; the country too is very similar, tho' not quite on so grand a
scale of sublimity; but you have fully as much variety in mountain and
valley, glacier and cascade. The climate is exactly the same as that of
Switzerland, being very hot in the valleys in summer. The inns are clean
and good, the provisions excellent and well cooked, the wines much better
than those of Switzerland; there is good attendance by females and all at a
far cheaper rate than in Switzerland. The Tyroleans are much more courteous
in their manners than the Swiss; they have not that boorishness and are of
more elegant figure than their Helvetic neighbours. The women of the Tyrol
are in general remarkably beautiful, exceedingly well shaped and of fine
complexions.
In the towns the bourgeoises dress well, something in the French style, and
it is their custom to salute travellers who pass by kissing their hands to
them.
