From The Wooden Bridge Which Crosses The Stream
Just Before Entering Upon The Sacred Precincts, The Church And
Chapels And Road Arrange Themselves As On P. 269.
On the way up, keeping to the steeper and abrupter route, one
catches sight of the monks' garden - a
Little paradise with vines,
beehives, onions, lettuces, cabbages, marigolds to colour the
risotto with, and a little plot of great luxuriant tobacco plants.
Amongst the foliage may be now and again seen the burly figure of a
monk with a straw hat on. The best view of the sanctuary from
above is the one which I give on p. 270.
The church itself is not remarkable, but it contains the best
collection of votive pictures that I know in any church, unless the
one at Oropa be excepted; there is also a modern Italian "Return
from the Cross" by Ciseri, which is very much admired, but with
which I have myself no sympathy whatever. It is an Academy
picture.
The cloister looking over the lake is very beautiful. In the
little court down below - which also is of great beauty - there is a
chapel containing a representation of the Last Supper in life-sized
coloured statues as at Varallo, which has a good deal of feeling,
and a fresco (?) behind it which ought to be examined, but the
chapel is so dark that this is easier said than done. There is
also a fresco down below in the chapel where the founder of the
sanctuary is buried which should not be passed over.
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