Wintering in the Riviera: With Notes of Travel in Italy and France, and Practical Hints to Travellers — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Wintering in the Riviera: With Notes of Travel in Italy and France, and Practical Hints to Travellers
John Stuart Mill · en
formation of a promenade along the shore, as at Mentone, Cannes, and
Nice. Were this done, it would help to draw strangers, and if strangers
came, other improvements would follow.
* * * * *
On the first afternoon, we had, after arrival, time to take a
walk westward along the beach for about a mile to a small village
Laigueglia, which, as usual, possesses a church with a campanile; other
large buildings like granaries fronted the sea. We took, the following
day, a much more interesting walk up the height of Santa Croce to
the eastward, encountering unexpectedly by the way a smart shower,
from which some protection was afforded by the trees. Upon leaving
the town, a paved donkey–path leads up the hillside, skirted by woods
(the carroube trees here growing luxuriantly), to the ruins of an old
chapel, whence an extensive panorama spreads out on one side, back
over the hills behind the town, and down on the town and ocean below;
while eastward the rockbound coast stretches away, visible as far, I
believe, on a clear day, as Genoa and beyond it. But the day was not
sufficiently clear to see so far.
* * * * *
Dr. Giuseppe Schneer has published a pamphlet of about eighty pages on
Alassio, titled, _Alassio ed il suo clima confrontato con quello di S.
Remo, Mentone, Nizza, e Cannes_. It is in Italian, unfortunately, and
consists of three parts. The first and largest part contains medical
advice, leading up, of course, to approval of Alassio. The second part
gives some information about the town, its population, schools, hotels,
etc.; and in reference to its healthiness, adduces a table of mortality
from which it would appear that during nine years the average was about
100 deaths per annum in a population assumed to be now and throughout
5500, or 1 in 55, which would certainly be extraordinarily low. Another
table is given to show the duration of life, evidencing considerable
longevity. The third part deals with the meteorology of Alassio, and
contains some tables, from which it would appear, if the observations
be correctly taken, Alassio stands well, and, on the whole, obtains
a higher temperature than places on the Riviera with which it is
compared—a result which may be accounted for by its being more shut in.
I take the liberty of quoting an excerpt from one of these tables (p.
74):—
_Media della Temperatura delle Singole Stazioni della Riviera._