Wednesday, July 15 1959 SSS THE WILLIAMS LAKE TRIBUNE Page 5 Sylvia Baker Our travellers see Pope, and go fo the opera today Staying in the Wilma Pension. The name may not be ; Italian, but the people who run the place sure are, they don’t speak any English at all. A pension is like a boarding house and a hotel, you pay for @ bed and three meals. That is Tire Trouble ? See us C&S Tire Service very ‘S Letter Home most people do, we don’t expect to be in much during our three days here so we areonly paying $1.50 a head for the room. The four of us girls are in one room with a sink and the boys are across the hall. Right at the moment I'm propped up in bed on white sheets no less, trying to get this letter written. we| have just finished a huge wash- ing and have it strung all over our room and I’m a bit worn out. To make things worse,| the heat here is terrific, that is One of the things T have against! Italy. Boy, is it hot here. | After we found this place to stay, we drove to the famous! Colosseum to view the ruins, saw the Trevi Fountain and {Victor Emanuel Monument. They were all very impressive. Tomorrow we will return to these places plus others and take pictures, so will give you a more detailed description then. ALPINE HIGHWAY Now I will bring you up to date. Last Wednesday, after we left the youth hostel, we drove over the Grossglockner Highway. It's an alpine road through the mountains and a beautiful drive. ‘The sun even hone for us, but we had a tank | of bad gas in the car and we had to keep stopping to let the car rest and twice we had to jump out and push to reach the top of some terribly steep hills. I'll never forget this car, I've put a lot of work into push- ing it. From the Grossglockner we crossed into northern Italy and came down through the Dolomites from Austria. We've sure had our share of moun- tains. The Dolomites were beautiful, they are. different to the Austrian or Swiss Alps in that they are mostly sheer, rugged rocks. I can’t really say which set of mountains .ap- pealed to me most, because they are all so vastly different. We passed through Cortina, the place where the 1956 Winter Olympics were held and it was a really pretty place. There is the Swiss influence in northern Italy—all the homes are Swiss chalets. All through the moun- tains we saw remains of the war. All along the road were blockhouses, the same as we saw in Austria and Switzerland. I think Switzerland had more to show from the war years. We numerous tank traps, mostly near the Austrian border. saw The tank traps are triangular blocks of cement _ placed throughout the fields. Another thing I noticed was the con- cealed doorways and hangars in the rock. Someone did a ter- Tific job of camouflage, you had to strain your eyes to see some of them. Just as we were nearly out of the mountains, our brakes gave out, but we managed to make it into Florence. We took the car into the garage at ten o'clock and we had to wait until six o’clock for the brakes to be relined. A $35 job. I had never realized that the car was my home until I was turned loose to wander the streets for eight hours and that is a long time to window shop. Anyway, Janet, Jeanette and I bravely set our wondering what we were going to do with ourselves for the day. Surprisingly enough the day flew by. We had wonderful time browsing through the souvenir stores and poking around the open stalls. The things you can buy leather are so darn cheap. Florence ‘is supposed to be cheaper for shopping than Rome but we couldn’t find many stores other than the one block setup for the tourists. in Florence is an odd city for shopping, all the stores are hid- den away and you have to search to find them. I splurged and bought myself a very nice white leather evening bag for 95 cents, my first, and I’m very pleased with it. We had our lunch that day in a very fash- ionable sidewalk cafe. While you get ‘SUPREME GASOLINE because: engine cueaan CHEVRON SUPREME ... Has carburetor-cleaning detergent action for better mileage Does not build up energy-wasting deposits in your Gives full protection against power-robbing engine knock under all driving conditions Burns evenly throughout the entire power range ; Contains built-in protection against vapour-lock. FOR THESE REASONS: In rigidly controlled labor- atory tests, and in driving tests conducted by experts under all types of road condition, Chevron Supreme was found to be UNSURPASSED by any other competitive brand. In the Stanovan refinery, Standard’s engineers and technicians supervise the most carefully controlled production of gasoline to be found anywhere in the world. but you'll never know until you try it! Standard invites you to make the “Supreme” mileage test. Pick up a copy of Standard’s “Gasoline Mileage Record” from any Standard Station or Chevron Dealer when you fill your tank with Chevron Supreme. And, if you drive a car that runs on regular grade gasoline, you can drive a bargain by using Chevron “regular”. It’s also UNSURPASSED by competitive brands. AT THE SIGN OF THE CHEVRON we take better care of your car STANDARD STATIONS + CHEVRON DEALERS STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA LIMITED a |tOWer, Pisa had nothing else to we sat eating our pizza, we watched all the people walk by. It was really nice. LEANING TOWER We drove from Florence to Pisa and saw the famous lean- ing tower. It was far nicer than I had expected, it is whiter, shorter and leans more than I imagined. Aside from the offer so we spent only a short time there and then started for Rome. The day we were in Pisa was really a hot one,.so we found a nice beach halfway to Rome and’stopped for the day. The water was really terrifle— so warm. I'm pretty well up to date now, I think. This morn- ing we got all dolled up and raced down to American Ex- press for our mail. Thanks very much for the charm bracelet and also the Kleenex, it is welcome article as you can’t buy the stuff over here. We had a terrific time today, we went back to the Coloseum for another look and to take pictures. For 150 lira (25¢) I was able to walk up the ancient steps to the top and look down on the ring where the Christians were thrown to the lions. The Colosseum is wonderful when you think how old it is. Some parts have fallen away and they have had to put in retainin, walls to keep the whole thing from crumbling. From the Colosseum we drove to the Trevi Fountain where I threw in a coin and made a wish. It’s a lovely fountain and apparently a lot of other people think so too, for there were dozens of tourists flocking around having their pictures taken. The Trevi Fountain is the “Three Coins in the Fountain.” SIDEWALK CAFE Before we continued our tour of Rome we stopped at a side- walk cafe and had a feed of Italian spaghetti and some whit wine. All was going well until I tried to communicate with the waiter and began to wave my arms about. As one arm was coming down it somehow landed on the end of my fork and spaghetti flew up and splattered over my face, neck, arms and the white collar of my new navy dress; Life's. embarrassing moments. The waiter was dab- bing at me with a servielte and the other kids were giving re a | bad time for being so sloppy. | I was just getting at my spag- hetti for the second time when jthe nice little returned | with a bottle of white powder jeu and sprinkled it over my waite Even after the meal water and a clean rag and had |a final dab. After all this fool- ling around, the collar was still | messy, so I just removed it. From the sidewalk cafe we went to the Victor Emanuel [Monument which also houses the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a magnificent | monument, it is the nicest I've] |seen since I've been travelling. | [It is a huge white structure columns and statues over it. |The statues aren't too signifi- |cant. They are everywhere. I think the statues are very nice, but I'd like them better if they had a few clothes on. They | don’t even have the required fig leaf. statues at the Olympic Stadium site. As you know, the 1960 Olympic Games are. being held here so we went out to the site to see the new stadium. 1 think the Empire Stadium in Vancouver is just as nice if not nicer. It is rather dishearten- ing as we are a year early for the games and a year late for. the World Fair in Brussels. I would have to travel in an in- between year. Thought I'd let you know that it is two o'clock in the morning as I sit on my bed writing this letter. As you are eight hours behind our time here, you are probably just sit- ting down to supper. I have returned from my first cpera and I want to tell you all about it while I am still enthused, so here we go. This afternoon we bought tickets to see ‘‘ Carmen,” which cost us the staggering amount of 400 lira, which is approximately 60c. The opera was to begin at 9 p.m., so We went early in order to watch the people arrive. We dida’t have to bother with the early business as the show was a half hour late in starting. Untor- tunately, the opera didn't take place in an opera house with box seats and all, but in a very modern, up-to-date movie theatre. It was very nice but it lacked the atmosphere I had been anti- cipating. I thoroughly enjoyed the opera, the music was won- derful and Jeanette, who was sitting next to me, told me the story as it went along, which made it much nicer. The opera was quite long, we had three intermissions of 20 minutes each and at 12:15 the lights came on and we were out of our seats Preparing to leave when we dis- covered it was another inter- mission. I was so tired that I could hardly keep my eyes open until the final curtain at 1:15 am. A late night like this hard to take when we have been used to going to bed at nine o'clock, SEE POPE JOHN Well, here it is July 1 and at 8:30 this morning I finally got a chance to get a bath in a real bathtub again with lovely hot water and all the fixings. This morning we went to see St. Peter’s Cathedral in Vatican City. It's a beautiful place and we went inside to look around and learned that Pope John was arriving at 1:30 for a public appearance, so we stood for an our and a half and waited. It was well worth it as we saw the Pope being carried in on a chair, may be it’s called a throne, to the altar. The cath- edral was packed with people from all over the world. Pope John spoke in Italian and French and gave a Papal Biess- ing and then the cardinals © | translated into English, Spanish and German. While I was standing waiting, I studied the interior of the cathedral and I have never seen anything so elaborately and richly decorated. It is abso- lutely beautiful, especially the altar. There are chandeliers hanging everywhere and a lot of the interior appeared to be in- laid with gold, a truly magnifi- cent sight and I’m glad I didn’t miss seeing it. Before we left the catheral, we took a thip to the top of the dome so we could look down on the square. The elevator only went halfway and then we had to climb 323 steps of winding stairway to the top. it was a worse hike than we had in the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was worth the hike, the view was completely stupendous. sore though. Before we did anything else, we stopped to have lunch and I tackled spaghetti again. (You'd think I'd had enough of | tne stuif when we had it every jthird night). I think T’'ve jnearly mastered the art of eat- ing it now, I can really manipa- ‘late a fork and spoon with it. latter lunch we visited the numerous fountains. The foun~ tains were lovely, but the gar- dens were disappointing. The train station here in Rome is fantastic. I’m sure.you could easily wander about for a we2 or so. You can wash and iron your clothes there, have a bath, massage, manicure, pedicure or a haircut. These are only a few of the things, not to mention the stores. There is every con- ceivable type of store repre- sented so you can imagine the size of the place. Well, tomor- row we leave for Naples, Capri and then on to Venice. My legs are sure we Lac La Hache news THE last United Church ser- vice for the summer will be held July 19, as Rev. McNeil will be away on holidays. MR. AND MRS. John Brod- erick and family now live at” the “Pretty Waters” trailer court. Mr. Broderick has taken S| over the shop behind the Chey- Ton service station. MRS. SANFORD OKLUND and family are up to spend the summer with Mr. Oklund. They are staying at Timothy Lake Lodge. MR. AND .MRS» Ben Henry from Chilliwack visited their son, Mervin. MRS. MERRITA Merrill and daughter of Kamloops visited” her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Stewart July 1. MRS. EVA Doncoster moved to Northern Stud. OBERT GUNDERSON has motored back to Alberta to move his family to 100 Mile House where he has purchased a new home. MR. AND MRS. Ned Mock- ford spent the long weekend at Mahood Lake and report fishing very good. MRS. CHRIS McDONALD has been visiting in Vancouver with her daughter, Greta. MR. AND MRS. Don Myters have their son, Vernon, home with them. MRS. FRED FERGUSON and family are spending the holidays with Mr. Ferguson at 122 Mile, MR. AND MRS. Terry Lord and family, South -Burnaby, visited Mr. and Mrs. H. Hagg- quest last ‘week. MR. AND MRS. John Maltais, Dewberry, Alberta, visited Mr. and Mrs. Dan Gunderson over Dominion Day. MISS JUDY ANDREWS, Van- couver, is helping Mrs. Rose Frame at 122 Mile Cafe for the summer months. MISS SHARON Broderick is employed at the Dayliner Cafe. MR. AND MRS. H. G. Hagg- quist, Regina, visited their son has and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Herm Haggauist, last eek. BORN, to Mr. and Mrs. Nor= man Colburn of Burnaby, a son June 30. MR. AND MRS. Ross Sanders land sons, Heinsburg, Alberta, fana Mr. and Mrs. John ‘Tim Edmonton, were also visitors at the Gunderson’s last week. Canimahood News MR. AND MRS. Ted Robinson, Diane and Pat and Candy Skelton of 100 Mile House spent the weekend sight-seeing through Canim and Mahood valley. TAKING IN the Williams Lake Stampede were Mr. and Mrs. Bob Uhrig, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Erickson. Canada’s Polar continental |shelf extends 50 to 200 miles wide north of the Canadian mainland and Arctic islands from Alaska to Greenland. 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