[Illustration: FIG. 23--The rearland of Nice as typified by this view of the Mediterranean Alps contains numerous bilingual settlements. The bridge in the photograph is the Pont du Loup.] [Illustration: FIG. 24--Nice with its pleasant approach and its Alpine background is built on the transition area between French and Italian language.] German is the vernacular of two small districts within Italian boundaries which adjoin the Swiss frontier and lie in the Alpine valleys of Piedmont. The most important of the two is situated south of Monte Rosa. It comprises the three adjacent valleys of Gressoney, Sesia and Macugnaga. The other is found in the Val Formazza or upper valley of the Toce. Both of these groups are extensions of the area of German speech which spreads over the eastern portion of the canton of Valais. This section of Switzerland was swamped between the ninth and sixteenth centuries by a flood of Teutonic invaders consisting mainly of Alemannic tribes[54] proceeding from the Bernese Oberland. All of the upper Valais, from Münster as far as Loeche and Zermatt, became Germanized during that period. The easterly spread of this movement led a number of German-speaking colonists to cross Gries Pass into the Formazza valley, while others went through the passes of Monte Moro and Monte Theodule to the upper valleys of Piedmont. According to historical documents the German settlers reached the shores of Lake Maggiore. But their language became lost in the midst of Italian speech and held its own only in the valleys already mentioned. The Piedmontese group of German dialects occurs in small settlements distributed on the southern slopes of Monte Rosa. The most noteworthy localities of Teutonic speech are Gressoney, Saint Jean, Gressoney-La Trinité and Issime. Dialects belonging to the same group occur in the Alagna and Rima S. Giuseppe villages, in Valsesia as well as in the Agaro, Formazza, Macugnaga and Salecchio localities of the Ossola valley. Altogether these settlements contain about 5,000 German-speaking inhabitants. Occupation of the region by Germans dates from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when emigration into upper Valais took place. The language once extended as far south as the Ornavasso. Its progress during the past half century has been insignificant.