Little Rivers [44]
quite grasp this idea, but hoped that we would not find
the pension too dear at a dollar and fifty-seven and a half cents a
day each, with a little extra for the salon and the balcony. "The
English people all please themselves here--there comes many every
summer--English Bishops and their families."
I inquired whether there were many Bishops in the house at that
moment.
"No, just at present--she was very sorry--none."
"Well, then," I said, "it is all right. We will take the rooms."
Good Signora Barbaria, you did not speak the American language, nor
understand those curious perversions of thought which pass among
the Americans for humour; but you understood how to make a little
inn cheerful and home-like; yours was a very simple and agreeable
art of keeping a hotel. As we sat in the balcony after supper,
listening to the capital playing of the village orchestra, and the
Tyrolese songs with which they varied their music, we thought
within ourselves that we were fortunate to have fallen upon the
Star of Gold.
II.
Cortina lies in its valley like a white shell that has rolled down
into a broad vase of malachite. It has about a hundred houses and
seven hundred inhabitants, a large church and two small ones, a
fine stone campanile with excellent bells, and seven or eight
little inns. But it is more important than its size would signify,
for it is the capital of the district whose lawful title is
Magnifica Comunita di Ampezzo--a name conferred long ago by the
Republic of Venice. In the fifteenth century it was Venetian
territory; but in 1516, under Maximilian I., it was joined to
Austria; and it is now one of the richest and most prosperous
communes of the Tyrol. It embraces about thirty-five hundred
people, scattered in hamlets and clusters of houses through the
green basin with its four entrances, lying between the peaks of
Tofana, Cristallo, Sorapis, and Nuvolau. The well-cultivated grain
fields and meadows, the smooth alps filled with fine cattle, the
well-built houses with their white stone basements and balconies of
dark brown wood and broad overhanging roofs, all speak of industry
and thrift. But there is more than mere agricultural prosperity in
this valley. There is a fine race of men and women--intelligent,
vigorous, and with a strong sense of beauty. The outer walls of
the annex of the Hotel Aquila Nera are covered with frescoes of
marked power and originality, painted by the son of the innkeeper.
The art schools of Cortina are famous for their beautiful work in
gold and silver filigree, and wood-inlaying. There are nearly two
hundred pupils in these schools, all peasants' children, and they
produce results, especially in intarsia, which are admirable. The
village orchestra, of which I spoke a moment ago, is trained and
led by a peasant's son, who has never had a thorough musical
education. It must have at least twenty-five members, and as we
heard them at the Festa they seemed to play with extraordinary
accuracy and expression.
This Festa gave us a fine chance to see the people of the Ampezzo
all together. It was the annual jubilation of the district; and
from all the outlying hamlets and remote side valleys, even from
the neighbouring vales of Agordo and Auronzo, across the mountains,
and from Cadore, the peasants, men and women and children, had come
in to the Sagro at Cortina. The piazza--which is really nothing
more than a broadening of the road behind the church--was quite
thronged. There must have been between two and three thousand
people.
The ceremonies of the day began with general church-going. The
people here are honestly and naturally religious. I have seen so
many examples of what can only be called "sincere and unaffected
piety," that I cannot doubt it. The church, on Cortina's feast-
day, was crowded to the doors with worshippers, who gave every
evidence
the pension too dear at a dollar and fifty-seven and a half cents a
day each, with a little extra for the salon and the balcony. "The
English people all please themselves here--there comes many every
summer--English Bishops and their families."
I inquired whether there were many Bishops in the house at that
moment.
"No, just at present--she was very sorry--none."
"Well, then," I said, "it is all right. We will take the rooms."
Good Signora Barbaria, you did not speak the American language, nor
understand those curious perversions of thought which pass among
the Americans for humour; but you understood how to make a little
inn cheerful and home-like; yours was a very simple and agreeable
art of keeping a hotel. As we sat in the balcony after supper,
listening to the capital playing of the village orchestra, and the
Tyrolese songs with which they varied their music, we thought
within ourselves that we were fortunate to have fallen upon the
Star of Gold.
II.
Cortina lies in its valley like a white shell that has rolled down
into a broad vase of malachite. It has about a hundred houses and
seven hundred inhabitants, a large church and two small ones, a
fine stone campanile with excellent bells, and seven or eight
little inns. But it is more important than its size would signify,
for it is the capital of the district whose lawful title is
Magnifica Comunita di Ampezzo--a name conferred long ago by the
Republic of Venice. In the fifteenth century it was Venetian
territory; but in 1516, under Maximilian I., it was joined to
Austria; and it is now one of the richest and most prosperous
communes of the Tyrol. It embraces about thirty-five hundred
people, scattered in hamlets and clusters of houses through the
green basin with its four entrances, lying between the peaks of
Tofana, Cristallo, Sorapis, and Nuvolau. The well-cultivated grain
fields and meadows, the smooth alps filled with fine cattle, the
well-built houses with their white stone basements and balconies of
dark brown wood and broad overhanging roofs, all speak of industry
and thrift. But there is more than mere agricultural prosperity in
this valley. There is a fine race of men and women--intelligent,
vigorous, and with a strong sense of beauty. The outer walls of
the annex of the Hotel Aquila Nera are covered with frescoes of
marked power and originality, painted by the son of the innkeeper.
The art schools of Cortina are famous for their beautiful work in
gold and silver filigree, and wood-inlaying. There are nearly two
hundred pupils in these schools, all peasants' children, and they
produce results, especially in intarsia, which are admirable. The
village orchestra, of which I spoke a moment ago, is trained and
led by a peasant's son, who has never had a thorough musical
education. It must have at least twenty-five members, and as we
heard them at the Festa they seemed to play with extraordinary
accuracy and expression.
This Festa gave us a fine chance to see the people of the Ampezzo
all together. It was the annual jubilation of the district; and
from all the outlying hamlets and remote side valleys, even from
the neighbouring vales of Agordo and Auronzo, across the mountains,
and from Cadore, the peasants, men and women and children, had come
in to the Sagro at Cortina. The piazza--which is really nothing
more than a broadening of the road behind the church--was quite
thronged. There must have been between two and three thousand
people.
The ceremonies of the day began with general church-going. The
people here are honestly and naturally religious. I have seen so
many examples of what can only be called "sincere and unaffected
piety," that I cannot doubt it. The church, on Cortina's feast-
day, was crowded to the doors with worshippers, who gave every
evidence