ter at the station says "No"
very courteously when you look appealingly at him and ask if a room has
been kept for you, the only way is to try the next on your list.
Fresh-water fish, fruit, cheese, honey, are all excellent by the lake,
and the wines of the Rhone valley are some of them excellent. At
Lauzanne, Vevey, Montreux, Territet, the wines of the country are well
worth tasting, for in the valley above Villeneuve there are a dozen
vineyards each producing an excellent wine; and the vines imported from
the Rhine valley, from the Bordeaux and Burgundy districts, give wine
which is excellent to drink and curious as well, when the history of the
vine is known. Always ask what the local cheese is. There are varieties
of all kinds, and they afford a change from the eternal slab of
Gruyere.

Of course Switzerland has its surprises like every other country, and
one does not expect to find an ex-head _chef_ of Claridge's running a
little restaurant by a lake in the Swiss mountains. Mr. Elsener, who is
this benefactor to humanity, was the head of the catering department at
the Imperial Institute when a very praiseworthy effort was made to make
a smart dining place in the arid waste called a garden in the centre of
the buildings; and he also catered for the Coldstream Guards, so that he
started business with a good _clientele_. As a sample of what can be
done on the mountain heights, I give the menu of one of the dinners
served by Elsener at the restaurant Villa Fortuna:--

Huitres d'Ostende.
Consomme Riche.
Filet de Sole au Vin Blanc.
Tournedos a l'Othello.
Petits Pois. Pommes paille.
Vol-au-vent a la Banquier.
Aspic de foie gras en belle vue.
Melons Glace Venitienne.
Petit Fours.
Omelette a la Madras.
Petit Souffle au Parmesan.
Dessert.

N.N.-D.

CHAPTER IX

ITALY

Italian cookery and wines--Turin--Milan--Genoa--Venice--
Bologna--Spezzia--Florence--Pisa--Leghorn--Rome--Naples--Palermo.

Italian Cookery

There is no cookery in Europe so often maligned without cause as that of
Italy. People who are not sure of their facts often dismiss it
contemptuously as being "all garlic and oil," whereas very little oil is
used except at Genoa, where oil, and very good oil as a rule, takes the
place of butter, and no more garlic than is necessary to give a slight
flavour to the dishes in which it