1936 On the Continent

to miss spending New Year’s Eve in Madeira, the lovely Pearl of the Atlantic; you should also see St. Michael’s Island, the most recent Portuguese discovery for foreign tourists.
    Your steamer is about to sail. Climb to the highest deck and big good-bye to Lisbon. Learn one other Portuguese word—
saudade
. You will soon understand its meaning when, in a few days’ time, you think of this country with gentle melancholy for having left it so soon, a melancholy tempered by the wistful pleasure of sorting out your memories of it.
    Good-bye. Good Luck.
    I kiss your hands,
    L UIZ T EIXEIRA.
    P.S.—The average temperature in Portugal is 12.5 degrees C. in the winter and 21 degrees in the summer.
INFORMATION
    Consult the
Annuario Turismo
, written in English.
    All detailed information in connection with a visit to Portugal will be supplied at the following addresses:
    L ONDON:
    Casa de Portugal, 20, Regent Street, S.W.1. Telephone: Whitehall 4671.
    Thomas Cook & Son’s Offices.
    P ARIS:
    Casa de Portugal, 7 Rue Scribe-Paris. Telephone: Central 4459. Telegraphic Address: “Caravela, Paris.”
    Thomas Cook & Son, Place de la Madeleine 2; Rue de la Paix 18, Rue Rivoli 150, Avenue des Champs Elysées 120.
    Cie Internacionale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens, Boulevard des Capucines 14; Avenue des Champs Elysées 38.
    Office de Tourisme des Guides Bleus, Boulevard Saint-Germain 79.
    P ORTUGAL (L ISBOA ):
    Nacional Council of Tourism, Ministry of the Interior, Praça do Comercio.
    Sociedade de Propaganda de Portugal, Rua Garrett 103-20. Telephone 23972.
    Automobile Club of Portugal, Tourism Committee, Largo do Calhariz. Telephone 20245.
    Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses, Estação do Rossio, First Floor. Telephones 24142-24145. Estação do Terreiro do Paço 24036.
    Sindicato de Iniciativa e de Turismo em Portugal La (S ITEP ), Praca de D. Pedro 93, Third Floor. Telephone 20267.
    Wagon-Lits World’s Organization for Voyages (Cook & Son’s Lisbon Agency), Rua do Carmo 87-C. Telephones 25375-25376. Telegraphic Address: “Sleeping.”
    T HE P ROVINCES :
    In all tourist centres apply to the local tourist offices.

ITALY
by
IMRE BARCS
    TABLE OF CONTENTS

ITALY
I—THE RAILWAYS
Past
    I N the long dead, palmy days of peace the traveller who was sufficiently imbued with a love of Antiquity and the Renaissance, and also sufficiently reckless to visit the strange, romantic and lovely but mildly suspicious and wholly unreliable world of the Apennine Peninsula, was bound to be warned about the railways. More experienced travellers would regale him or her with interesting stories about the Venice-Rome train which ought to have reached the Eternal City at midnight and did not arrive under the glass roof of the Termini Station till seven in the morning, or about the Milan-Florence express which refused to start until three hours after the scheduled time. Naples and cholera, Messina and earthquakes, counterfeit soldos and lire, Fra Diavolo, the terrible Borgia popes, the camorra of Naples and the catacombs of Rome—all these things were used as the ingredients of a devil’s brew of alarming legends about Italy, so that the English or American tourist set out on a journey to that sunny country with the same misgiving as if they were going to darkest Africa.
Present
    Ten years ago this romantic but most unhealthy and uncomfortable world vanished. The foreign tourist travels by trains that run punctually to schedule; the hotelier, porter, taxi-driver cannot cheat him, for any attempt to do so entails penalties that would cripple these gentry for life. The foreigner in Italy is a welcome and pampered guest, and this has remained entirely unaffected by recent political events.
    The State Railways do everything in their power to facilitate the foreign visitor’s stay in the country by granting him various concessions. Fare reductions range from 50 to 70 per cent., according to the itinerary selected by the traveller. Nowadays none but those who are determined to be placed under tutelage pay full fares onthe Italian railways. The official Italian tourist traffic organisation—the E.N.I.T.—periodically publish a list of concessions, which can be consulted at any travel bureau. Generally, the Italian railways allow a reduction of 50 per cent. on return tickets in the case of individuals, and one of 75 per cent. in the case of parties of not fewer than eight persons. In addition, 30 per cent. is allowed on