There are many walks in the neighbourhood for those who do not mind
mountain paths. The most beautiful of them all is to the valley of
Sambucco, the upper end which is not more than half-an-hour from
Signor Dazio's hotel. For some time one keeps to the path through
the wooded gorge, and with the river foaming far below; in early
morning while this path is in shade, or, again, after sunset, it is
one of the most beautiful of its kind that I know. After a while a
gate is reached, and an open upland valley is entered upon--
evidently an old lake filled up, and neither very broad nor very
long, but grassed all over, and with the river winding through it
like an English brook. This is the valley of Sambucco. There are
two collections of stalle for the cattle, or monti--one at the
nearer end and the other at the farther.
The floor of the valley can hardly be less than 5000 feet above the
sea. I shall never forget the pleasure with which I first came
upon it. I had long wanted an ideal upland valley; as a general
rule high valleys are too narrow, and have little or no level
ground. If they have any at all there often is too much as with
the one where Andermatt and Hospenthal are--which would in some
respects do very well--and too much cultivated, and do not show
their height. An upland valley should first of all be in an
Italian-speaking country; then it should have a smooth, grassy,
perfectly level floor of say neither much more nor less than a
hundred and fifty yards in breadth and half-a-mile in length.
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