Continental Tour, 1959

He emphasised Britain's dependence on "Industry and Commerce", and listed the non-technical posts, which his firm offered, together with the qualities he looked for in a person applying for a job. The form of this talk was more or less repeated by each speaker as it applied to his own particular field of business.

Mr. Dodds of Lloyd's Bank spoke about the many aspects of a career in banking, and Mr. Cooper of the Electricity Board, in a very informative discourse on "Electricity and Nuclear Energy", gave some shrewd advice to prospective personnel managers. Mr. Fisher of the National Coal Board addressed us on the subject of relations between "Education and Business", explaining the change in business methods and working conditions, which have taken place since the beginning of this century.

Mr. Williams of Harrod's, talking about "The Retailing Trade", painted a very colourful picture of life in independent shops, multiple and department stores. The last address was given by Mr. Stobo, the director of an advertising agency, on "The World of Advertising". He pointed out the exacting nature of the advertiser's work, and some of the difficulties of entering his exclusive profession.

To conclude what was for me a highly informative and worthwhile visit, we put questions about the talks we had had to a Brains Trust, consisting of the organisers of the conference, whose hard work and attention was much appreciated by those who attended.

C.D.I.

This year the Easter holiday School tour was to Brunate, a partly tourist, partly workaday, village eight minutes by funicular from Como. It proved a happy choice, for the village itself commands extensive views, and, especially by night, the view of Como, 1,650 feet below, was particularly impressive. From the hotel windows could be seen a panorama of the Alps, including the Monte Rosa massif, nearly 16,000 feet high and 50 miles away. The hotel itself was the most pretentious that our parties have stayed in, and we found it both friendly and efficient.

The main fault of the stay at Brunate was that it was too short. This was partly fact, for we lost half-a-day at each end, but also partly an impression, for by flying to Basle from Southend we cut the best part of a complete day's travelling on each journey. A compensating advantage was that we were fresh enough to enjoy the rail journey from Basle to Como via Lucerne, the St. Gotthard Tunnel, and Lugano : it must be, scenically, one of the most beautiful railway journeys in Europe.

Como itself is an attractive town, catering for the tourist but not dominated by him. It is excellent for window-shopping, the one amusement enjoyed equally by every member of a school party, but there are plenty of other amusements, such as boating, and places to 34

visit : the Cathedral, the Temple in memory of Volta (the scientist who made such important contributions to our knowledge of electricity, a native of Como, who died in 1827) and the Villa Olmo.

One day was spent going back into Switzerland by train to visit Lugano. It rained all day, and some time was wasted in search of the Villa Favorita, which was further out than we had been led to believe, and was closed when those who persevered reached there. But, after all, if one must have a wet day, there are worse places than Lugano, with its pleasantly arcaded streets. In the afternoon we had a trip on the lake, by the Italian enclave of Campione and to Gandria. Campione is of interest because it has a Casino : they are illegal in Switzerland but there are no passport formalities here and visitors to Lugano can gamble to their heart's content by making a fifteen minute motor-boat trip. Gandria is described locally as a "fishing village"; there was very little evidence indeed of fishing, but if the adjective really means "quaint and picturesque, a haunt of artists", it is fully appropriate : we felt it well worth a visit and good compensation for not going up S. Salvatore as originally planned.

The next day we visited Milan, with a bus and a guide to take us round the main places of interest, which seemed the best arrangement, if one is to make full use of one day in a great city, though in other ways is it not a very satisfactory method. However, we did have the afternoon at our own disposal, and were able to make a second call on places that interested us most, though not always successfully, as those who tried to get into La Scala discovered. Milan Cathedral inevitably raised comparisons, in some respects, with York Minster, and indignation was clearly visible on certain faces when the guide claimed that the East Window was the largest in the world : and it certainly did not look as big as the Great East Window at York. One of the most interesting visits was to the old monastery dining hall, adjoining the church of S. M. della Grazie, to see Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper", painted in tempera on an end wall in 1497. The hall seems out of keeping until one realises that the whole of one side and half of another were destroyed during an air raid, leaving little but the two ends standing : the survival unscathed of the "Last Supper" seems almost miraculous. Milan, of course, is a great shopping centre, and it was pleasant to stroll through the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele, though general opinion seemed to be that prices were high, and purchases were few. At the other extreme of the business world were the very enthusiastic sellers of postcards and curios, and some of the party enjoyed bargaining with them—one claimed to have made a purchase at 400 lire for something originally quoted at 1,000. Another interesting feature of this day was the bus journey along the autostrada which in its 20 miles or so has no turnings and, as far as we could observe, only two junctions. Our bus cruised along at 80 km.p.h. : about 50 m.p.h. 35

On the Saturday, a sunny but somewhat hazy day, we set off, by public service, on the m.v. "Dalia" for a trip on Lake Como. These services, whose timing is remarkably good, call at many lakeside villages. Some of these are very picturesque, and their settings are delightful. We landed at Tremezzo and walked to the Villa Carlotta—a visit which proved one of the highlights of the whole tour. We were shown the rooms by an old German guide who said he had been there 54 years, having first come in the service of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and having stayed on when the property was confiscated after the war and became the property of the State. The sculpture by Canova of Eros and Psyche, in the entrance hall, seems to provide the favourite postcard of every shop in the Italian lake area, but it was the gardens we enjoyed most, with oranges, lemons and grape fruit, and many exotic plants such as sequoia, banana, and various tropical palms. But it was the wonderful display of wistaria, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias that made the visit most memorable. From the Villa Carlotta we walked on to Cadenabbia, to lunch at the Bellevue Hotel, said to be one of the finest in North Italy, to have been visited by Queen Victoria, and to have been the Italian Foreign Office during the latter part of the war. From here we went across the lake to Bellagio, a charming little town with "staircase" streets and arcades. Music was provided with our refreshments on a lake-side terrace, and began with "Colonel Bogey". Since the film "Bridge on the River Kwai" this tune seems to have been regarded on the continent as the great British patriotic music—hence, no doubt, its use to welcome us. The association is of course quite different for us, and the musicians must have been a little surprised, but they soon reached safer ground with "My Fair Lady". In the later afternoon we returned to Como in the steamer "Milano", which seemed to arrive at each stopping place with more enthusiasm than skill.

It is almost traditional that on the Sunday the party should go for a long afternoon's walking, and this year we walked up to the top of Monte Boletto (about 3,800 feet). It was a lovely day, sunny and fresh, and from almost the whole of the route grand views are obtained. From Monte Boletto a panorama of the Alps from N.B. to N.W.; Lake Como lies over 3,000 feet below; to the south lies the plain of Lombardy with Milan clearly visible, and the Ligurian Apennines beyond : from horizon to horizon the distance must have been over 120 miles. It so often happens that, after a time, when details become blurred in the mind, the walking day is the one that stands out most clearly among the memories of a School tour, and this year is not likely to be an exception. A small group went to Milan instead, to see the home team playing Sala : they, too, enjoyed their day.

On Monday, a brilliantly sunny but windy day, we went to Laveno on Lake Maggiore, by bus, and then across the lake to 36