ENGLISHWOMAN’S WALK.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4561, 9 May 1923, Page 3

ENGLISHWOMAN’S WALK.

1300 MILES THROUGH ITALY. From occasional walks taken by way of a “constitutional” our New Zealand girls are now taking longdistance tramps of 30 miles in a day. Lest, we grow conceited about it, let me tell you of the 1300-mile tramp which was undertaken by an Englishwoman, her husband, and her two babies (these last in a perambulator) through Italy. Imagine a young woman, tall* witn bobbed hair aprtially hidden by a coloured silk handkerchief tied, Gipsy fashion, about her head; and clad, for the rest, in a. dilapidated blue serge costume (with a very abbreviated skirt) and a green woollen jersey. Her feet and legs arp innocent of either shoes or stockings; on her back is a large knapsack, from the aperture of which peers the contented,’ pink face of a baby, writes Thelma M.. Clifton in “John o’Lpndon’s Weekly.” By her side is a man hi a brown corduroy suit, with a blue shirt. Although bare-headed, he is conventional enough to be wearing socks and stout brogues on his feet. He, too, a . knapsack (minus the baby), and pushes before him a light pram in which sits a little boy of perhaps two years of age. Imagine this queer group somewhere on a dusty road in. the midst of the Apennines and you will-have a fair picture of myself, my husband, and’ our two babies on any day during our thirteen-hundred-mile tramp through Italy. ■ - Tired of the vagaries of an Englsih climate, we had decided to go to Italy, a country that we had both long wished to visit. Our means were small, so obviously the more stereotyped form of travel was not for us, and having something of a weakness for ti amping we had decided to walk from Pompeii to Milan. . Only once during our journey, which ’ occupied something over two and a half months,, did we sleep under -a roof, and that was when we reached a tiny village, set in the heart of the mountains, called Orte. It was intensely cold, and we were given shelter in a stable. The stable was shared as well by two horses and a cow. who did not contribute to the tranquillity of that nights i epose. The outfit which we carried with us was of the simplest; It consisted of separate sleeping bags for each of us. those for the babies being smaller; two changes of socks for my husband, one pair of stockings and one pair of sandshoes for myself (these intended for wear upon our presumably'triumphant entry into the large towns), a change of underclothes each, two. enamel mugs, two knives, necessary washing accessories, and two cotton suits and a thick jersev each for my small sons. • Awkward as it very often was to find convenient camping sites, food was our greatest problem. Save in the really large towns, anything of an edible nature, with the possible exception-of fruit, seemed to be extraordinarily scarce.