Rivista Mensile del Touring Club Italiano, Vol 13, No 8
Articles in this issue
- Declaring that the Rivista does not report races, the editors instead describe the towns on the 61 km Brescia–Castenedolo–Montichiari–Castiglione delle Stiviere–Lonato circuit of the Coppa Florio (1 September) and Coppa della Velocità (2 September 1907), recalling Narciso Bronzetti's death after Treponti in 1859, Napoleon's walled camp at Montichiari and the Villa Fenaroli that served as Garibaldi's headquarters in 1866.
- First instalment of readers' replies to the magazine's inquiry into Italy's finest viewpoints, praising Perugia and the Piazzale Michelangelo at Florence, Madonna della Losa above Susa, Monte Fionchi above Spoleto, Ponzone in the Ligurian Apennines (quoting deputy Pio Viazzi's La Bellezza della Vita), Monte Titano at San Marino and Monte Orfano near Rovato.
- The outings-and-rallies department for August 1907, covering the international touring convegno at Trieste and the coming meets at Empoli, Perugia, Parma and Savona.
- Report on the Touring's Trieste rally of 29 June–1 July 1907, when some 1500 machines from over sixty clubs paraded to the Teatro Verdi and more than 600 cyclists rode to the San Canziano caves. Director-general comm. Federico Johnson and comm. L. V. Bertarelli came by car, while conte Piero Foscari brought the Venetians by the steamer Adriatico, which carried the banner of St Mark on to Capodistria, Pirano and Parenzo.
- Reprinted from Trieste's Il Piccolo della Sera, a note that in 1884 the city had just five velocipedists, chased through piazza Grande by urchins shouting "Ara i guai" — set against the 1907 convegno that brought the whole town into the streets.
- Cycling squads from Florence, Prato, Pistoia, Borgo S. Lorenzo, Siena, Poggibonsi, Livorno, Viareggio and Naples paraded through Empoli in fine weather, followed by a gymkhana in the ippodromo of piazza Guido Guerra and prize-giving at 20.00.
- Announcement of the national cycling and motoring meet of 26–29 August 1907 under Touring patronage, with an excursion to Assisi, a steamer trip from Passignano to the Polvese and Maggiore islands on Lake Trasimeno, and a visit to the exhibition of early Umbrian art in the Palazzo dei Priori.
- Programme for the Parma consulate's meet of 21–22 September 1907, combining a national muster of volunteer cyclists and motorists with a reception in the Teatro Farnese, a shooting match at the Ponte Taro range and an excursion to Pier Maria Rossi's castle of Torrecchiara.
- Mountaineering notes: the XXXVIII congress of Italian alpinists at Varallo in the Valsesia on 1–7 September, the Società degli Alpinisti Tridentini meeting put back to 8 September at Primiero, a memorial to be unveiled on Monte Piana (2335 m) to Carducci's ascent of August 1892, and the C.A.I. university section's Alpine Week in the Trentino on 21–27 August.
- Console prof. Giuseppe Traverso previews the Savona meet of 15 August 1907 — an international race for the "Coppa Savona" given by the King, with a cycling and motoring convegno — and describes the Torre del Brandale, the Leon Pancaldo tower bearing Chiabrera's distich, the Priamar fortress where Mazzini was imprisoned, and the Siderurgica works employing 2000 hands.
- The railway department for August 1907, on the reformed season-ticket tariffs of the State Railways and the hundred steam railcars bought for trial.
- The State Railways' new season tickets from 1 August 1907: unit prices falling by 10 to about 50 per cent beyond 100 km, a 3000 km ceiling (1500 km for monthly tickets), lines graded in three categories with 10 and 20 per cent reductions, a further 30 per cent for radial itineraries, payment by monthly instalments and a photographic identity card valid five years.
- The State Railways have bought a hundred steam railcars of three types already proved abroad. The example illustrated, built by the Officine Meccaniche di Milano and shown at the 1906 Milan Exhibition, carries a transverse locomotive boiler on a two-axle bogie, seats 16 in first and 50 in third class, has steam, Westinghouse and hand brakes, and can be driven from either end.
- The roads department, opening with the proposed Turin–Reggio Calabria motor road and continuing with state road reform, eased gradients and newly opened routes.
- Three letters on Achille Fazzari's proposal, hatched at the Ristorante Colonna table in Rome that d'Annunzio called "il mio cenacolo", for a road reserved to motor cars from Turin to Reggio Calabria with hotels and garages along the Apennines. Director-general Johnson replies that the Touring's technical commission will draft an outline project; Fazzari adds that Giolitti and the public works minister promised to weigh its military value.
- Ing. Massimo Tedeschi argues for a single state road service run through regional directorates over national, provincial and communal roads alike, with large gravel yards, mechanical haulage and modern sweeping and watering, provinces paying a contribution based on their past decade of spending. He cites deputy Léon Janet's French budget report, in which some forty departments handed communal roads to the Genio civile.
- The Gasparona ramp linking Marostica with Breganze in the province of Vicenza has been rebuilt from about 400 m at 11 per cent to 780 m at 4.5–5 per cent, and console F. Colpi reports the Breganze descent eased as well, so the road is now rideable at every point.
- A deputation from Mantua asked minister Gianturco that the contractor already building the Revere–Ostiglia railway bridge be given the carriage bridge too; the two Po towns are at present joined only by a bridge of boats.
- Barone Giuseppe Federici sends a photograph of the crossing of the river Agri at Montalbano Jonico in the province of Potenza, offered as a specimen of what passes for a road.
- The Valais cantonal authority's provisional rules for motor cars and motorcycles over the Simplon: open 15 June to 15 October but never on Thursdays or by night, no departure from Gondo or Brig after 16.00 in summer, compulsory registration with the Landjäger at 5 lire, 10 km/h maximum and 3 km/h on bends, the ordinary horn only, and fines of 20 to 500 lire.
- Two Lombard short cuts: leaving Milan for Bergamo and Brescia by via Nino Bixio and the Pioltello road (line 576 of the Guida della Lombardia) instead of the crowded corso Buenos Ayres, and avoiding the stony streets of Binasco on the Milan–Pavia road by the Naviglio towpath to Casarile.
- The road from Sondrio up to the village of Chiesa in Valmalenco has been much widened and improved and is now passable by motor car.
- New roads reported: the provincial Ponte Galera–Ponte Tre Denari south-west of Rome, shown on the Civitavecchia sheet of the Carta d'Italia; a 5 km road at Castello dell'Acqua (Sondrio) due in 1908; works at Savigno (Bologna), Resuttano–Alimena in Sicily and Quarto–Marano near Naples; a metal bridge over the Oglio between Acquanegra sul Chiese and Calvatone; and several roads radiating from Argegno on Lake Como.
- L. V. Bertarelli's three-day Dolomite ride from Feltre through Fonzaso to Fiera di Primiero, up to San Martino di Castrozza and the Passo di Rolle, down through the Paneveggio forest to Predazzo and Moena, over the Pordoi (2250 m) to Arabba, then by the waymarked wooded track past the Austrian customs to Caprile, Alleghe and Agordo, ending at Bribano station.
- The education-and-tourism department, on the Cuneo section of the Club Alpino Italiano's joint outing with the Comizio Agrario of Mondovì and on marching and running in Milan's schools.
- The newly founded Cuneo section of the Club Alpino Italiano has arranged an early-September excursion to the Mongioia (2630 m) together with the Comizio Agrario di Mondovì and Pro Montibus et Silvis, so that walkers learn about alpine pasture, forestry and fish-farming as well as enjoying the view over the Po plain and the Ligurian sea.
- Regretting how little Italian communes and government do for physical education, the Rivista holds up Milan as the exception and prints photographs given by consocio ing. comm. Giovanni De Simoni of school marches and races organised by the city, including the elementary pupils at the Garibaldi monument and the municipal watchmen's winning 10 km marching squad.
- The Automobile Club di Milano's rules and circuit sketch, under the patronage of Princess Laetitia of Savoy, Duchess of Aosta, for the Coppa Florio of 1 September and the Coppa della Velocità of 2 September 1907 over the 61 km Brescia–Castiglione–Lonato loop, of 400–550 km and 400–650 km total distance respectively. Eleven captioned vignettes identify the "strada della fame", the Desenzano railway viaduct and the Castenedolo climb.
- Writing for the public in the road rather than the passenger in the car, L. V. Bertarelli dismisses complaints about speed, frightened horses, smell and noise as passing, and names dust as the motor car's one incurable defect: a Veneto count had to wall in his villa, Swiss haymakers struck for extra pay, and French suburban property has lost value. An appended note asks makers to redesign mudguards and exhausts and to hood headlamps in towns.
- Third in the series of petrol analyses, this time the Veloxine brand, whose fractional distillation shows greater volatility and lower density than the earlier samples but whose price is prohibitive. On prof. Gianoli's proposal the commission has put off practical trials until winter, and the piece reviews Dr C. Roth's ammonium-nitrate additive and three alcohol-benzine mixtures published by F. N. in La Locomotion Automobile.
- The "Terre et Eau" boat-car of M. Ravaillier, which drew the curious to the banks of the Seine in June 1907: a steel hull on axles running through sealed tubes, with a 20 HP petrol engine whose gearbox shaft drives either the propeller or the road wheels through a clutch, giving 30 km/h on land before it takes to the water.
- A new eight-seat motor service has opened from Lecco to Taceno (26 km), climbing gradients of up to 17 per cent through Ballabio and Balisio under the Grigna and covering in 1 hour 10 minutes a journey the old messaggeria took five hours.
- The hydroplane built by Croceo and Ricaldoni of Rome's Brigata Specialisti and tested on Lake Bracciano on 22 May 1907: two V-shaped foil pairs on a modified Thompson patent lift the hull half a metre clear of the water, and two air propellers driven by an 80–100 HP engine give 70 km/h at an all-up weight of 1500 kg with two aboard. Queen Margherita is photographed inspecting it.
- New motor services: Porretta–Lizzano–Fanano across the Bolognese and Modenese Apennines from 6 July, Egna to Predazzo by Ora and Cavalese from 6 August, Ivrea–Crescentino, and a char-à-bancs run from Pisogne to Casino Boario for guests of the Grand Hôtel des Thermes at two lire a head.
- The tenth Paris motor show, the "Decennale dell'Automobile", runs from 12 November to 1 December 1907 under the Automobile Club de France with the Chambre Syndicale; entries must reach the Commissariat Général at 8 place de la Concorde on the official form before 15 August.
- A full-page plate of six photographs from the Peking–Paris motor raid: the start at Peking, the main street of Nankow, the crossing of the Ring, Chinese porters bivouacking after towing a car, the Gobi desert and a difficult pass at Toll.
- The roll of contributors to sheets 27 (Civitavecchia), 28 (Roma), 34 (Frosinone) and 35 (Napoli) of the Touring's map of Italy, naming the chief engineers of the provincial technical offices and of the Genio civile at Grosseto and Rome together with hundreds of local correspondents, station masters, land agents and forest inspectors.
- L. V. Bertarelli reports the Civitavecchia and Frosinone sheets despatched and the Roma and Napoli sheets on press, Napoli being a fifth larger with a special fold so as not to break the unity of the bay, and the publication order changed to Brescia, Livorno, Pisa and Bologna-Firenze so the whole Alpine chain can be drawn at one stretch. On foreign place-names for the Como sheet he has consulted De Agostini, Achille Dardano and professors Ricchieri, Salvioni, Crotta, De Toni and Dalla Vedova.
- The library department for August 1907, noticing new guidebooks and listing the books received at the Touring.
- Reviews of G. B. Ciani's second edition of the late G. Marinelli's Guida della Carnia — 512 pages, 17 itineraries, a general summary by prof. Enrico Marchettano, an I.G.M. map edited by Olinto Marinelli, 4 lire bound — and of Giovanni Herrmanstorfer's 98-page cycling guide to 120 routes within 100 km of Trieste, prefaced by a stanza from Cesare Rossi's Inno dei Ciclisti.
- List of books received, from the Danube steamship company's handbook and the Ministry of Public Works' monographs on Italian ports and on navigable lakes, rivers and canals to Treves guides to Venice and to Italy, Bommier's Le chauffeur à l'atelier, Conty's Suisse and the Austrian and German automobile and cycling club handbooks.
- Notes from the periodicals: X. Imfeld's defence of the projected Matterhorn railway in Alpina, the new Rivista Italiana delle comunicazioni e dei trasporti launched in Rome under Piero Lucca with 150 deputies among its contributors, the Magyar Automobil Ujsag's count of foreign motorists through Budapest, and Henry Blanchard's argument in the Touring Club de Belgique bulletin that city names should keep their original form — why should München become Monaco in Italian?
- The club's official section for August 1907, carrying the ballot scrutiny, the resolutions of the Direzione and Consiglio, notices to members, consular and affiliation lists and the roll of membership candidates.
- Of 1810 votes counted at the Touring's offices on 16 June 1907, 1803 approved the 1906 accounts; Badini, Belotti, Gavazzi, Guastalla, Johnson and Moro were elected councillors and Magnocavallo, Soffredi and Turrini auditors, each with about 1795 votes.
- June 1907 decisions: approval of the Perugia meet with medals for the Siena–Perugia run, praise for the Reggio and Trieste consulates and for avv. Belotti at the L. I. A. T. congress in Munich, a three-member commission to draw up an Italian highway code on the model of Périgaud's French one, a commission on the navigation guidon granted by the Ministry of Marine, and ing. cav. Gola charged with an outline project for Fazzari's road.
- Members are reminded that one lira a year secures registered despatch of every publication except the Rivista, that letters to head office should carry the membership number as well as a legible name and address, and that the administration accepts no liability for money sent in ordinary unregistered letters.
- The Acque Albule company's sulphur baths at km 20 of the via Tiburtina on the Rome–Tivoli provincial road give notable discounts to Touring members who arrive by bicycle, on production of a card paid up for 1907.
- List of members subscribing on the five-year plan, from Giacomo Baccalini of Venice to Piero Villa of Ponte S. Pietro and including subscribers at Córdoba, New Orleans and Lyon, bringing the total to 4905.
- Fifteen further members honoured for recruiting, among them Giuseppe Capuzzo of Mogliano Veneto, Achille Castoldi of Busto Garolfo, Gabriele Grosso of Biella and Umberto Sanguinetti of Milan, taking the roll to 1286.
- Fifth list of newly appointed consuls, including prof. Francesco Cerise at Aosta, Michele Torta at Bracciano, princ. ing. Ernesto Corsini at Florence, cap. Vincenzo Nigro at La Maddalena, the 93rd infantry's cap. Amedeo Bianchi at Lecce and four new consuls at Venice.
- Fifth list of the Touring's medical section, adding dott. Raffaele Conca at Gaeta and dott. Giulio Cesare Scatolari at Gallese.
- The signpost department, recording the latest gifts towards Touring road signs and the affiliation of chemists, garages, mechanics and petrol dealers.
- New signpost donations carry the running totals from 2531 signs and L. 33 658 to 2619 and L. 35 548. Donors include the province of Genoa, the communes of Brescia, Casarsa, Possagno, Rome and Sesto San Giovanni, conte Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux, comm. Federico Johnson and S. A. R. il Conte di Torino, whose ten signs are worth L. 250.
- New affiliations of chemists, garages, mechanics and petrol dealers, with the old shop plaque replaced by an enamelled blue-and-white pattern for first-class and a pale blue one for second-class houses. Five new petrol depots are listed at Brescia, Forlimpopoli, Savona, Senigallia and Vestone quoting benzina at 0.90 to 1.05 lire a kilo, with price cuts at Aosta, Ardenza, Palazzolo sull'Oglio and Pieve di Cadore.
- A newly patented bicycle valve said to be stronger, more practical and cleanable without taking the tyre off; instructions and terms from Società C. Bassoni e C. of Bologna.
- The Bates bicycle tyre sets a layer of strongly compressed rubber between the canvas inner lining and the outer rubber cover to stop sharp objects reaching the inner tube and bursting it; enquiries to Sironi, Oggioni e C., via Lesini 9, Milan.
- Reversible handlebars adjustable in height above the centre, in distance from the saddle and in the height of the ends, letting a rider find the position that draws most work from arms and legs for least effort; from J. Gross, Guidons Réversibles, 89 rue de la Mare, Paris.
- Two brakes from Società C. Bassoni e C. of Bologna: the Rex, simple and small with shoes set at 45 degrees to suit Dunlop and Continental rims, and the Omega, wholly of sheet steel and fully jointed so that it still brakes a wheel that is out of true or missing a spoke.
- Candidates who applied for membership between 1 and 30 June 1907, life members first — among them Giovanni Agnelli of Turin, the Société Vélocipédique Hellénique of Athens, the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce and the comune of Voghera — then annual members province by province from Alessandria to Cremona.