The Alps

I don't think one really associates Western Europe with scenery. You travel to Europe to go to museums and see cathedrals and soak up our culture's history. But Italy is a spectacularly beautiful country. Even the Italians, after complaining about this and that - there's plenty to complain about - will shake their head and say "but Italy is beautiful, you have to give it that."

The Alps are a very young range, as ranges go. They were apparently formed when Africa slammed into the south side of Europe, causing this kind of slow-motion shock wave. The Himalayas, also an East West range as Chris Luisi pointed out, were formed the same way, this time with India being the runaway landmass.

Then the ice ages sculpted the Alps. The highest peaks in the Alps are about 15,000 feet, as are the highest peaks in the lower 48 states. (Mt. Everest is just under 30,000 feet!) I've seen a good bit of the Rockies and of the Cascades, and they are beautiful. The Alps seem somehow steeper, apparently caused by the ice sheet carving valleys. The Alps have very big and very deep (over 1,500 feet in some cases)lakes.

The illusion of steepness is enhanced by human presence. Something like 20 million people live in the Alps. As you drive through Switzerland you see these largish wooden houses halfway up a mountain. How did they build that? Do these people every come to town? One thing mystifies me. You see houses and even villages built at the bottom of big rock faces or at least steep hills rising up to big mountains - 8,000 feet or more. Mountains erode, right? It seems to me like a single pine cone falling up high could end up sending a bowling ball sized rock through the roof - like once a week.

Staid, conservative (except compared to our country) Switzerland is wild. There were reports in the Italian newspaper of wolves taking sheep and goats. Susan saw a deer as we were driving through.

Because the have to cope with the Alps, the Swiss have many tunnels, some well over 10 miles long, drilled straight through the mountains - the longest auto tunnel in the world. The famous passes are there as well, Simplon, Saint Bernard (I think that was the one Hannibal crossed with his elephants), St. Gotthard. St. Gotthard is called "The Water Tower of Europe." Four major rivers, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Po and the Danube, start in its glaciers.

This is the major route from Germany to Italy, not just for tourists but also for trade goods. They are building another much longer tunnel for rail deeper under the mountain. This will be the longest tunnel of any kind in the world.

On clear days the view of the city, over the foothills to the High Alps, about 50 miles away. The foothills have this tortured, folded, steep form, quite often with a marble church on top. The area is heavily wooded. All in all, a very beautiful part of the world, well worth a visit for the scenery alone.