There is another sanctuary about three hours' walk over the mountain
behind Oropa, at Andorno, and dedicated to St. John. We were prevented
by the weather from visiting it, but understand that its objects are much
the same as those of the institution I have just described. I will now
proceed to the third sanctuary for which the neighbourhood of Biella is
renowned.
* * * * *
At Graglia I was shown all over the rooms in which strangers are lodged,
and found them not only comfortable but luxurious--decidedly more so than
those of Oropa; there was the same cleanliness everywhere which I had
noticed in the restaurant. As one stands at the windows or on the
balconies and looks down to the tops of the chestnuts, and over these to
the plains, one feels almost as if one could fly out of the window like a
bird; for the slope of the hills is so rapid that one has a sense of
being already suspended in mid-air.
I thought I observed a desire to attract English visitors in the pictures
which I saw in the bedrooms. Thus there was "A view of the Black-lead
Mine in Cumberland," a coloured English print of the end of the last
century or the beginning of this, after, I think, Loutherbourg, and in
several rooms there were English engravings after Martin. The English
will not, I think, regret if they yield to these attractions.
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