Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/433

Rh between green banks. Swollen with the rains and the floods of the smaller rivers, it is at this moment dangerous. The father of a family, who was going this morning in a little boat to his country-house, was drowned by the upsetting of his boat, which was driven by the violence of the stream against the bridge.

From this bridge, which extends, with its seven arches, between the city proper and its suburban portion, which is called La Collina, the view is really splendid. Far away, to the northwest, rises the pointed cupola of Monte Viso—very like a gigantic artichoke—from a chain of snow-covered Alps, at the feet of which lies Piedmont, as its proper name Piedmonte shows, and which separate Italy from the rest of Europe. The river Po, which has its source in the bosom of Monte Viso, now looks like a dark and hideous tyrant, but its banks are lovely! On the green heights of La Collina, white palaces, country-houses, and churches shine out, and foremost amongst these, the Pantheon-like church Gran' Madre di Dio, built by Carlo Alberto. Wooded grounds surround the white buildings. Further south, rises La Superga, with a convent, and the family mausoleum of the Princes of Savoy, 2,500 feet above the sea, the largest building, it is said, which has ever been erected at this elevation, a colossal Ex Voto, raised to the Lord of Hosts, in the year 1706, by the King of Sardinia, Victor Amadeus, in memory of the victory which he obtained in that year, over a French army. Carlo Alberto rests there—he died 1849—after his unquiet life. At a greater distance below the height of