Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2

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[522] of enterprise or progress. About ten o'clock in the evening of this day we again went on board a large gondola and with some German students as companions made our way to the train which left the city that night.

We were in Milan the morning of June 6th, where the weather was mild and the skies clear. From the top of the cathedral, ethereal in its surpassing beauty, we had a magnificent view, which took in an immense portion of Italy. The city is circular and still encompassed on three sides by walls. The entire circuit is about eight miles. It can be entered from its different quarters by ten gates. It has sidewalks thoroughly paved. The Brera Palace, which was formerly a Jesuit College, was, when we were there, a great public school of art with a library of 140,000 books.

At Turin we visited an Exposition, which was in active operation just outside the city limits, and saw the multitude-various peoples and climes were represented. From Saturday to Sunday we slept twelve hours and then attended an English church service at eleven o'clock. We walked about the city considerably Sunday afternoon, but it was on Monday, June 9th, that we accomplished the most. My son was especially interested in the mechanical department. We examined also the war and art divisions of the Exposition. On this same day we went from Turin to Bellinzona, an Italian town of some importance, really in Switzerland, situated on the left bank of the Tecino. It used to be guarded by three old castles and completely commanded the road through the valley where it is located. We arrived at midnight and the hotels were closed and so we decided to stay in the depot, but the railroad agent said that le must close up that building