WELLINGTON SOLDIERS IN ITALY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 118, 12 February 1919, Page 8

WELLINGTON SOLDIERS IN ITALY

/—« : : I GENOA ON ARMISTICE DAY. ! ■ ' ' In a letter received by the last English mail, Corporal Guy E. Little, of Wellington, gives an •,interesting account 'of a trip he had to Italy in November . v, last. He states:—"When I left the comf. ' pany, which was'on November '5, We . were at ; Le Quesnoy, and about twelve '' miles from Hons, they were moving on that morning," but my friend' and I got 1 our passes and left them at about 6 a.m. We marched back about -six miles and • there changed. w eloih&-> .and got cleaned up generally before presenting ourselves, to the paymaster.. He .was'sta-tioned.'at-a place called Solesmes, and after we had received our money'we . travelled in motor-lorries down through 1 Cambrai, Bapaume, Albert to Amiens. Wo stayed the night at the. last-mentioned - place, catching the 3.30 train .next morning..for. Paris, where v/e arrived at 7.30 a.m. . We .stayed at the Hotel Monte Carlo, in the Boulevard des Ittiliejis. '. Paris is the most beautiful place I have .yet.Seen,'and,' heedless to.say, we had a great time whilst there. Unfortunately, .the weather'was wet, so .we were only .able to,do two. long trips,, one to Malmaison, Napoleon's country residence, / and .the other through the Bois du Bout, i ; logne, the Hyde' Park of Paris. We did' the trip to the woods on horseback, and We had a great time. We also went to " ' several theatres, amongst others the Folios, Bergeres,;which.is simply wonderful. Weleft Paris at 8 p.m. on the evening of our fourth d{iy there,. and journeved ■via the enowclad mountains to Moda'ne, on the Franco-Italian border. The scenery en.,route. was magnificent. We did. not feel the cold; however, as we travelled first-class all the way through. We had-dinner/at Modane, and left at 1 p ; m, for Turin, arriving : there at about 4 j .o'clock, in the afternoon. ' - ..:' ( The Italians were in a great state of excitement oyer, the Austrian armistice, and gave us a.great reception,, We stay- ! ere f° r a day 'and a; half, and then left for Pisa, where-we spent about eight ■ hours visiting 'La-Cattedrale la Torre,' , and the famous-leaning tower (the Cam.panile della.:.CattedraleJ and other places i of . .interest, ■ We next, visited-Genoa. -On arrival • I atv this place -we found that hostilities had ceased a£* 11 o'clock that morning ' on the Western front. Needless to say, this was wonderful- news, and the whole , town was -upside down.' Being a naval base, Genoa was full of both English and Australian naval men. We had a very exciting evening, I can tell you, as the people were, off their 'heads with delight. The only , thing; that annoyed 119 wfcs that everywhere'wo went we were takeni'for Americans. Botli Prance and Italy is full of-them, and the peoplo think that jereryone thafc wears a. eloucli. hat conies from the States. - Amongst the many monuments we saw was that of Christopher. Columbus, and we also visited the ; famous .thoroughfare Garibaldi and the U-alleria Mazzim, as well as' other places of interest. We left Genoa, at midnight for Florence, spending two njpst enjoy-' able days there: We went through the .Palace, St. Mark's Cathedral, and TTSited .the 'principal monuments of this -pity °f Flowers.' 'We" met several Engladies, and they showed us every, thing of interest. We then left for Home arriving there at 10 o'clock in the morning, just before the ; King of Italy. It was useless to endeavour to get through the crowd, so we waited until His Majesty arrived. We obtained a splendid view .' of him and the procession. It was midday before we arrived at our hotel, and • -once there we were soon ready for" sightseeing. The same old 'Vive L'Americano greeted us,, but wo did-not take much notice as we were used to it by this We visited St. Peter's Church, the .Coliseum, the .Catacombs, and! the principal places relating to-ancient Home. ' It was-all-very interesting, and I would not have missed it for worlds. By this time we were 'just the thing' on spaghetti and macaroni, in fact, we were • nearly accomplished Italians. Pood was pretty scarce in Italy—you never saw butter, or sugar, and potatoes were few and far between. However, we did not starve—we lived on the best., "After two and a half days in Home, - where I met a Miss Palmer, from Wellington, we left for .Nice, travelling along the shores of the Mediterranean tlio whole way. During our stay at Nice we went to Monte Carlo, going through tlio . Casino, which is a most beautiful building, standing on the odgo of a cliff. From here we wont to Monaco, visiting the i museum and aquarium. All the places ' are bjiilt on the cliffs, and the tram ride r from' Nice fairly puts your hair on end. 1 I lie weather was beautiful and warn It i was just lovely to stroll along the Prol , menado des Anglais, and mix wit> the \ people there. Everyone talks to everyone : else, and what with the people~trying their English on us, and we doing our 1 best to be Frenchmen, it was always very amusing. We had threo days here/and I had_ to tear ourselves away; We left for !:; Paris, via Marseilles, still travelling i along the coast. Wo caught tho Ttanide' for Paris, and after rpending' a couple ofdays there took tho train once more for ; 'Amiens. From Amiene we proceeded to ; Beauvois, and found the company about two miles away at Bevillers. The division was resting here before marching through ! to Germany. . All the French villagers j. are coming' back from Germany to their respective homes, and everyone is as happy as can bp. The only pity is that i it is winter, and I am afraid many of ; them are in for a severe time. However, !. their wonderfuli spirits will pull them ;. through, and by next summer things' i should be settling down to normal again." | Corporal Little.expects to be returning to New Zealand shortly.