Rivista Mensile del Touring Club Italiano, Vol 10, No 1
Articles in this issue
- Front-page notice that the 1904 subscription of L. 6 (L. 8 for members living abroad, the extra 2 lire covering postage) must be paid by 15 January, with instructions for completing the postal order and the violet sticker that validates the membership card. Members paying five years in advance (L. 30, or L. 40 abroad) receive a silver benemerenza badge made exclusively for them.
- New Year editorial setting out the magazine's programme, recalling that the first number appeared in January 1895 as the Bollettino and that the Rivista now covers tourism and all means of transport rather than cycling alone. It claims a record: 432 pages delivered in 1903 against the 389 promised, at a cost of L. 2.10 per member against L. 0.15 in 1895, with no rise in the annual subscription.
- Presentation of L. V. Bertarelli's rebuilt Lombardy regional guide, which grows from the 364 pages of 1896 to about 1,000: road sections described rise from 1,200 to 2,300, with 1,000 altimetric profiles drawn from at least 15,000 readings and 1,300 informants questioned on 8,000 double-checked cards. It is accompanied by a 1:100,000 topographic map in six sheets prepared with the Istituto Geografico Militare, and the article is illustrated with monuments of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Mantova and Pavia.
- Department on the movement to attract visitors to Italy, reporting the Milan promoting committee (architect L. Broggi, dott. Ettore Candiani and ing. A. Riva) that is founding a large "Sezione Lombarda e dei Laghi" of the Associazione nazionale pel movimento dei forestieri, and surveying the local Pro societies at Gardone, Sebino, Como, Brunate, Bellagio, Lecco, Chiavenna, Ceresio, Luino, Pallanza and Orta. It also minutes the Association's Rome council meeting of 14 December under on. Di Sant'Onofrio.
- The statute aims of the society founded in 1901 for Lake Iseo and its surrounding districts: attracting visitors and summer residents, pressing transport companies for better fares and timetables, encouraging modern hotels, alpine refuges, sanatoria and climatic stations, and stationing informers and interpreters at the lake's main ports and on the larger steamers.
- Account of the year-old Luino society, spurred by the example of Lugano and Locarno, which worked on rail and lake timetables, backed better theatre programmes, obtained a decent steamer landing-stage, put up arrival and departure boards around the town and issued an illustrated guide to Luino with a topographic map of the whole lake.
- Opening statement of a new standing department that will report regularly on hoteliers' associations, model Italian and foreign hotels, notable new hotels and major improvements to well-known ones, inviting readers and especially hoteliers to send in news and photographs.
- The Palace Hotel des Dolomites going up at Borca (1,000 m) for cav. Angelo Zucchi's Società Alberghi Cadore, designed by ing. Francesco Marsich and built by Pietro Busseto: 150 beds plus 80 in a dependance, a dining room for 350, electric light, stabling for 50 horses and a motor-car service linking it to Cortina d'Ampezzo and the stations of Vittorio and Belluno. The Hotel Cadore-Venezia at Tai and the Grand Hotel Misurina are noted as part of the same revival.
- First meeting, held on 21 December in rooms lent by the Touring's own management and chaired by comm. Giuseppe Spatz, of the committee founding a Milan regional section of the Italian hoteliers' society; Marcello Caspani of the Touring was named secretary and Spatz presented a draft statute.
- Standing department reviewing the exhibitions of interest to tourists and motorists in 1904 and 1905, covering the shows at Brescia, Milan and Turin.
- Programme of the Brescia exhibition running May to September 1904, with its arms and sport section and the divisions that concern tourism: transport industries, the forestiere industry, alpinism, speleology, automobilism (motorcycles, cars, motors, accumulators, brakes, tyres, chauffeurs' clothing, fuels) and cycling, including an experimental brake competition. The Touring complains it was wrongly listed under cycling alone.
- Preview of the 1905 Milan exhibition, which will group aeronautics, automobilism, cycling, rowing and nautical sports in ordered series, treat roads and their maintenance systems within the land-transport section, and add a retrospective show of land and sea transport covering everything from ippology and coaches to hotels, posts and diligences.
- The international motor show organised by La Stampa Sportiva and the Club Automobilisti d'Italia under royal patronage, to be held 6-21 February 1904 in the Gallerie delle Belle Arti at the Valentino, on the Paris model. Cesare Goria Gatti presides, with Alfredo Rostain (Touring head consul in Turin) as vice-president and Nino G. Caimi as general secretary; the Touring has granted its patronage and director Federico Johnson sits on the committee of honour.
- Photographic column giving the formula for an iron-salt sensitised paper (ferric chloride, oxalic acid, gelatine) that yields platinum tones after gold or platinum toning, presented by the author at the 1903 Lausanne congress of the Union internationale de photographie, plus dott. Castellani's auramine and safranine recipe for a darkroom screen paper giving a light that is bright to the eye but safe for plates.
- The roads department, running from world railway statistics through road-maintenance literature, heavy motor haulage, the Touring's standing in international road hygiene, and winter snow clearing, to short notes on tarring, dust laying with petroleum and cart-drivers' unlit vehicles.
- Prussian ministry statistics on world railways in 1901: 816,000 km of line, of which America 410,600 and Europe 290,800; the United States lead with 317,400 km, Belgium and Saxony have the densest networks and Queensland the most track per head. Total capital cost is put at 162.5 milliard marks.
- Review of La manutenzione razionale delle strade in ghiaia by ing. Alfredo Biadene, a prizewinner in the Touring's 1900 competition, published by the Deputazione provinciale di Pisa. It sets out the four technical and administrative conditions for good gravel-road upkeep and compares the ordinary partial-spreading system with cylindered general recharges.
- Note that the question of heavy motor haulage was postponed at the June automobile congress in Paris because so little progress had been made since 1900, most French public goods and passenger motor services having failed. Ing. Forestier warned that vehicles carrying six tonnes per axle must not exceed six kilometres an hour if the macadam is not to be wrecked.
- The author and comm. prof. L. Pagliani of Turin, members of the international road-hygiene committee, report that their survey of Italian roads was laid before the Brussels international hygiene congress on 5 September by ing. Koechling of Leicester. Its section on the Touring credits the 37,000-member association with its road monographs, its 1900 prize competition (won by ing. Lo Gatto, Biadene and Rabbi) and its permanent roads commission.
- Signed piece by ing. M. Tedeschi of Turin on the triangular wooden and iron fendineve drawn by six to twelve horses to keep mountain roads open before snow turns to ice, illustrated with photographs of skiing in the Black Forest sent by console P. Tronchez, a judge at Waldshut.
- Notice that towards the end of March the Touring will leave casa Barbò at piazza Durini 7 in Milan for larger premises in palazzo Taverna, via Monte Napoleone 14, and is offering the vacated rooms for sublet.
- Illustrated account of the Touring's special commission for signposts and road signs, chaired by cav. Augusto Massoni of the Automobile Club Italiano with Bertarelli, Gorla, Johnson, Guastalla and others, which has circulated 10,000 copies of a fundraising pamphlet. It sets out the three sign categories: direction plates with kilometric distances, slow-down signs, and danger signs for steep descents, sharp bends, broken roads, cunette and level crossings, with subscribers' donations and signs already erected at Aquila, Canicattì and Luserna S. Giovanni.
- The mountaineering department, opening with the Casati and Facetti commemoration and continuing with winter outings to the Moncenisio and Punta Larescia, the Milan section of the Club Alpino Italiano, the Federazione prealpina's waymarking and De Gasperi's first ascents in the Prealpi Clautane.
- The ceremony at the Milan section of the Club Alpino Italiano for Antonio Facetti of Sondrio and dott. Giacomo Casati of Gessate, lost between the Col d'Olen and the Capanna Gnifetti during the ciclo-alpina to Monte Rosa. Ing. Giannino Ferrini gave the address with lantern slides of their climbs, including the Dame Inglesi peak in the Mont Blanc group now named Punta Casati, and president ing. Alberto Riva announced a subscription for a permanent memorial on the rock face from which they fell.
- Report of the section's ordinary assembly of 29 December 1903, which approved a 1904 budget of L. 18,540 income against L. 18,530 expenditure, debated the L. 1,000 first instalment for a possible 1905 alpine congress in Milan, and heard president Alberto Riva on prof. Angelo Mosso's plan for an alpine university at the Colle d'Olen. New officers include vice-president avv. Cleto Tosi and secretary rag. Mario Tedeschi.
- Meeting of the federation of Milanese and Lombard excursion societies, some 1,000 members in all, at which president prof. Ottone Brentari reported the past season's waymarking and announced Touring medals to the Mediolanum femminile for the Comizzolo and to Cesare Morlacchi, Alfredo Bellini, Paolo Caimi and Aquilino Verga for the Cistella and the Zuccone di Campelli. Future waymarks will carry interlaced F and T letters.
- The cycling department, given over this month to the closing instalment of the inquiry into how much of a country a cyclist really sees.
- Closing instalment of the inquiry opened the previous February, printing three more members' answers, from Edoardo Zanotti of Livorno, O. Lena of Foligno and dott. Alessandro Lova of Borgomanero, on whether a cyclist sees a region well enough to describe it. The editor concludes that seeing depends on riding at 14-15 km/h without hurry and reading up beforehand, which is what the Touring's motto vi et mente means.
- Paolo Letellier d'Aufresne's report from the Paris show: the decorated stands of Clément-Bayard, De Dion, Prosper Lambert, Richard, Krieger, Panhard, Renault and Martini under fifteen thousand lamps, the national entries (F.I.A.T. for Italy, Mercédès and Continental for Germany, Napier and Wolseley for Britain, Pipe and F.N. for Belgium, Oldsmobile for America), and the two novelties in the place of honour, colonel Renard's continuous-drive road train with Cardan joints and the Paris fire-brigade motor pump.
- The two Italian stands most admired at the Paris Salon: Fiat of Turin, whose 1904 four-cylinder pressed-steel chassis with magneto ignition, double-seated valves and honeycomb radiator drew French praise, alongside a 150 HP heavy-oil motor built for the Italian navy; and Reina e Zanardini of Milan, who showed two hundred lamps and sold strongly in France and abroad.
- The motoring department, reviewing the 1904 motorcycle and engine types, road-traffic legislation, the international calendar of trials and shows, and proposals to tax motor cars.
- Introduction to the season's review of 1904 motorcycles and engines, which the writer promises to compare model by model against their 1903 predecessors as the measure of the year's progress in the industry.
- The 1904 touring engine from the Fabrique de Moteurs et Machines (formerly Lüthi, Zürcher e C.) of St. Aubin, settled at 2 3/4 HP with 75 mm bore and 80 mm stroke, now with mechanically operated valves, special bronze bearings in place of steel and an internal oil circulation returning to the crankcase; racing types of 6 HP single and 5 HP twin-V are also listed.
- The Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Guerre of Herstal enlarges its motor to a true 2 3/4 HP for touring, adds an external oil-level sight glass on the crankcase, a bigger constant-level FN carburettor, a 36 mm flat belt, a corrected free-wheel, a reservoir-fed oiler worked from a handle by the saddle, a strengthened front fork and Bowden and back-pedal brakes on the rear rim.
- The N.S.U. 1904 touring machine, also standardised at 2 3/4 HP, with lowered and lengthened frame, mechanically operated inlet valve, long bronze bearings, a carburettor with double regulation of hot and outside air, Neckarsulmer patent ignition from accumulator or rotary magneto, pump lubrication and two brakes including a band brake on the front wheel.
- The minister of public works, on. Tedesco, has appointed a commission to revise the motor-circulation regulations and draft a law easing motor services between places without railways or tramways; the Touring is represented on it by its councillor comm. Giovanni Silvestri.
- The 1904 calendar of touring trials, caravans, exhibitions and technical competitions agreed on 16 December in Paris by the presidents of Europe's automobile clubs at the initiative of the paper l'Auto, from the Paris-Turin caravan and the Versailles non-skid competition in February to the Nice-Rome caravan, the Gordon Bennett caravans and the December Paris show.
- Reply to the Genoese Economista, which urged the government to tax motor cars as belonging wholly to the rich: the Rivista answers that by the same logic Italy should tax its silk manufactures, and points to the millions France, Germany, Britain and the United States earn from motor exports while Italy does almost nothing.
- Cartoon from the Munich Schnauferl imagining the nuisance horses will cause to motor traffic in 1924, when every horse must be registered and numbered, carry three number plates, front and rear lamps and a warning bell, wear pneumatic tyres on its hooves and not exceed three kilometres a month.
- Miscellany department carrying readers' notes and corrections to the Touring's own publications, with pieces this month on the abbey of Hautecombe, the Grotta d'Arpaia at Porto Venere and the women of the Cadore.
- The abbey of Hautecombe on the Lac du Bourget near Aix-les-Bains, which belongs personally to Victor Emmanuel III under the treaty annexing Savoy and is kept by twelve Italian friars paid from the King's privy purse, beyond the reach of French law on religious congregations. Rebuilt in Gothic style by Charles Felix, it holds the tombs of twenty-eight princes of the House of Savoy.
- A member's letter disputing the inscription set up in 1877 by conte Pieri Nerli at Porto Venere, quoted by prof. Brentari in Attraverso l'Italia, which claims Byron was inspired there for The Corsair and swam from Portovenere to Lerici. Byron had not yet come to Italy when he wrote the poem, and the writer urges that the cave lose its invented name of Grotta di Byron.
- Note on the heavy emigration of able-bodied men from the Cadore and Carnia, which leaves the hardest farm work, down to haymaking, to the women, quoting Carducci's apostrophe to the Cadore and observing how quickly the young women age under their loads and how the old valley costumes are dying out.
- Department of outings and gatherings, with the Moncenisio winter trip, the Bologna consulate's end-of-season banquet for some sixty members and the Sondrio section's closing run to S. Pietro Berbenno, including Sandro Silva's Swiss tour by way of Zermatt, Andermatt and the Stelvio and F. Cantelli's ride through the Valsugana to Trento.
- Winter excursion to the Moncenisio hospice on 10-11 January organised by console G. M. Aymale of Susa under the patronage of the Turin consulate, leaving Susa at 8.30 with sledges waiting at Molaretto and offering skating, ski practice and a sledge crossing of the lake; L. 20 all in, limited to fifty Touring or Club Alpino members.
- A Sporting-Club has been founded at Turin, open only to Touring members, with the Touring's console nob. Enrico Chiroli as president and avv. De Benedetti as vice-president.
- Book department, reviewing Guido Rey's Il monte Cervino (Hoepli, 1904, L. 25) with Edoardo Rubino's illustrations, De Amicis's preface and Novarese's geological note, and the Syndicat d'initiative de la Savoie's Album de la Savoie pittoresque with its 92 zinc-plate views, held up as an example Italy should follow.
- Digest of court rulings affecting cyclists and motorists, with the full texts of two magistrates' judgments: the Pretura of Pavia acquitting Luigi Brigatti over the collision with capitano Italo Della Noce in piazza Castello, and the Pretura of Castelfranco Emilia acquitting Riva because the prosecution could not prove who was driving the car.
- The Touring's legal answer column, signed by chief legal consultant avv. Cesare Agrati, dealing with railway delay compensation for a bicycle, what counts as a pavement, riding without a plate or a lit lamp, motorcyclists' appeal against the Milan prefect's order, the power of road cantonieri to report motoring offences, and a motorcycle maker who tried to force accessories on a buyer.
- Official section carrying the council's deliberations, the referendum result on the statute, members' complaints and the club's own announcements about the Lombardy guide, the Annuario and the affiliated hotels.
- December resolutions of the T. C. I. council: Johnson's mission to the Trieste and Trentino consulates over the L. 2 surcharge on members abroad, the memorandum on the motoring regulations presented in Rome by comm. Silvestri, an internal reorganisation of the offices, and a point-by-point answer to Milanese members who wanted their own consulate, the annulment of the referendum, fuller council reporting in the Rivista and more detailed annual accounts.
- Minute signed by auditors Gino Turrini, Attilio Soffredi and Romeo Riva recording the count on 26 December 1903 of the postal referendum on statute changes: 3,012 papers returned, 2,751 in favour and 261 against, carrying the amendments to articles 5, 7, 9 and the new 51 and 52.
- Chronicle of council members' travels in the last two months: the director general to Trieste and Trento, legal head avv. Cesare Agrati twice to Paris for the 1905 congress and the motor show, roads head Bertarelli to Florence for the Lombardy map and to Calabria and Basilicata for the coming guides, comm. Silvestri to Rome, and vice-director ing. Alberto Riva to Como and Rome for the foreign-visitors association.
- With the contracts for touringbenzina with Zini, Cortesi e Berni and for oils with E. Reinach expiring on 31 March 1904, the club will replace its sealed-tin depots with affiliated dealers, listed in the Annuario and marked by a plaque, who must hold a minimum stock, respect a maximum price, keep cans, a funnel with gauze, scales, a Touring-stamped thermometer-densimeter and a complaints book, and stay open on holidays.
- Announcement that the subscription for the new Lombardy guide, which was to close on 15 January, will stay open until the book is ready, because the Istituto Geografico Militare still has some 10,000 reference numbers to insert in the map.
- The club hopes to distribute the 1904 Annuario by the end of March, or at the latest by mid-April, and presses members who have not yet returned the questionnaire sent to them to do so at once.
- Fifteenth list of hotels affiliated to the Touring, giving category, room and meal prices, member discount and garage capacity for houses at Acqui, Aosta, Cannero, Cannobio, Carate Lario, Cernobbio, Courmayeur, Lanzo d'Intelvi, Pisa, S. Margherita Ligure, Sirmione and Udine.
- Second list of members who have paid five years in advance, with the council's note that anyone who has already paid the 1904 subscription may become a five-year member by sending a further L. 24 (or L. 32 from abroad), covering them to the end of 1908.
- Deaths of capitano Carlo Priora at Ascoli Piceno on 5 December, who had chaired the committee for the August touring gathering there, and of dott. Giulio Travagliti, an affiliated Touring doctor, at Comacchio on 15 December.
- List of candidates who applied for membership between 15 December 1903 and 15 January 1904, arranged by province and including entries from the Colonia Eritrea, Trentino, Venezia Giulia, France, Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Salonica, Brazil, Chile, Smyrna and India, closing with the totals of 36,846 annual and 526 life members at 15 December 1903.