This favoured town not only takes one to the southern limit of Tyrol, but provides a charming rest-place, from which many interesting excursions may be made before setting one's face, reluctantly it will surely be, northward once more, through perhaps the grander but less soft and rest-provoking scenery of wilder Tyrol.
[19] Dante's "Inferno," Canto XII., lines 1-12.
AMONG THE DOLOMITES, WITH NOTES UPON SOME TOURS AND ASCENTS
To many who visit Tyrol the most interesting district of this delectable land is the Dolomite region, which forms by far the greater part of the South Tyrol Highlands and offers not only unique opportunities for climbers, but also much impressive and beautiful scenery.
It is only in comparatively recent years that the Dolomite of south-eastern Tyrol has become a popular holiday-ground of tourists and travellers. But a few decades ago it was--except to geologists, a few artists, mining experts, and the more enterprising climbers--a _terra incognita_, a region scarcely more known to the general travelling public than the centre of Africa. Even nowadays it is far less frequented by western European holiday-makers than it deserves to be.
Formerly there was some excuse for an ignorance and neglect which a lack of easy transit, good roads, and railways to near-by points might be held to condone. But at the present time so much has been done to throw open this fascinating mountain district to the traveller, rest-seeker, and artist that the excuse can no longer be urged.
Concerning the climate, scenery, people, and accommodation now offered to travellers, much can be said in praise. Indeed, regarding all of these, it would be difficult to say everything one might without running the risk of being accused of partiality or exaggeration.
In this portion of Tyrol (as, indeed, may be said also of others) one still meets with hospitality and courtesy at inns and rest-houses which are not chiefly based upon the expectation of personal aggrandisement or monetary reward, just as one still finds quietude wedded to splendid scenery and beautiful prospects not yet exploited.
In the Dolomite region, though its popularity is yearly increasing, one can yet happily meet with comfortable hotels, which are not overrun by the type of tourist for whom a good dinner is more than fresh air and scenery, and dress clothes and gorgeous costumes of an evening a _sine quâ non_. In a word, we have found that the Dolomite region is free from many of the disadvantages of Switzerland--that most exploited of European countries, and the one in which nowadays perhaps the least quietude and rest is to be found--and provides a playground for the mere pedestrian as well as a most attractive region for the exercise of the climbing instinct.