Oriskany (CV 34) - Naval Cruise Book

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T,S EASY to get around Italy by railroad but officers and men learned more when traveling by bus. The 4'Milan Tour tipped the men off on that. They stopped at the village of Serravalle Scrivia for a beer and a ham sandwichg at Pavia for a quick walk through the famous 14-th-Century Certosa, a Carthusian cathedral of black and white marbleg in Milan overnightg then to Lake Como in the ltalian Alpsg and, a feather in every man's cap, across the border into Switzerland. The village was a country crossroads, with farmers stalling their oxen in back- street barns and with two or three clean grocery stores. Centuries before, life had been the same: the main via paved with cobblestone and the side streets bare earthg doors opening directly on the highway without steps or sidewalksg children barefoot for summerg old ladies leaning out of windows and old men smoking in the sung a Padre vigorously making his parish callsg the church dominating the landscape. The two-lane highway itself fascinated sailors. Called an Autostrade and charg- ing tolls, the road first wound up and over the Apennines. Retaining walls pre- vented rock slides. Most of the walls carried rows of big black-painted squares. If the paint had been weathered, letters were visible under the black. These had been slogans of the Mussolini regime, now out of fashion. Sailors could make out some words: uDuce! Duce! and, translated, 'lYouth, Iron and Work for the Fatherlandfl Beyond the Apennines, the Autostrade straightened out in the valley of the Po River. Kilometers clipped past, much faster than miles. Then the Po itself, a shallow muddy stream unfit for navigation. At Pavia, New Englanders remembered the covered wooden bridges of Vermont and New Hampshire. Paviais covered bridge was brick and stone. The Carthusian cathedral outside Pavia had been practically taken over by the government as a national monument but religious services were still held inside. The church contained world-famous paintings on canvas and on plaster. ln a shop on the grounds, world-famous liqueurs produced by the Carthusian monks were on sale. The Arcade at Milan, roofed by a fretwork of glass and steel, houses shops and sidewalk cafes. Sailors waited two hours to cross the halo-Swiss border. At Como, sailors might have saved 200 Iire by walking up 2350 -H. My Brunafe. .

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..the sailors' city Pilots relax atop the Capurro, Genoa's highest building. Classic beauty marks the central Mausoleum of Cam- posanto, the Holy Field. COLOR! BCG Q X Ax., ..L LA FATRIA ,WX f Memorial lo Cl great navigator. Cemetery of Staglieno, one of the world's most grounds. The dust of generations gathers on heroic sculptures in the Camposanto galleries. The Borsa, stoclz market of the Ge Q.. v ' i MOOSE. .. .Wu Y K, 3' Z ' 2-V4 A ' i , V 'lim . , u if '- Y ew, -' VA ' 4 W'1f'ffyV3s 1--:2i'l1,14 'Y' 'M' 'c ' ,-if . T' 'iw 'i71.'L,ufr5:3- 1 lg A ' ' Emir- l l I H A J in , A' F1474 1 N 'W , ,, Vywzjyfyi eww- ,Tiff V ,V , 'Mf f ,I -15 fl , sw mf -gwsgi.g,g,h .. wait , :?',f,. l V T5 ' V A Lil'-xl 'V-lf' QW 1-1 :y.T,,1 V. , w f f - ' .V ' f- ' I V M . - A- -. e 2 -5 ,Q-,5ffp:,,. -.A 1 - Q- ' , v ' ' ,Q -9- A ' 1 x wawatewf ' .ig fx r' mff ft. . , ,. g ' ,wax -' s ' or '- ,V with -w e si' 'gf , ' 2 g , ' .,11.m.4 be v ,4 5: ' , 4 L re -A - ftjqqc i , 4' - , , .QAM Q ,.., ,fr 'g---E 3 4 ,QW , , 5 -A , , I ,, f , , . N Q I .te ,f e at , 2 f 4, .- 5 ' iffy , t 41 , ,q , jigpf I 4 ,y Mg- ? 5 f E ,ty , N x g 3 A, f ? Vi' P . We f 1 Q 72 V 1 - 1' +'- P aft' ,,t-,- M, r f '11 , 'T' 'i'rg v' 'iv , K ,Z as 4 f . 4 e A s ,Q g 1 .rf gran 5 4 I 1 ,, 4 in W ,, ' f 'rf , l X X, 'W 1 fp'-v-we -11,---s,...... ..,. '9V?ti MQ' as

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ff f , . . through North Italy to the Alpine border Q TXT-T T- fili' S ' ffff X Then Milan, the biggest city in ltaly. As in the village, the cathedral dominated everything. Every pinnacle, and ll Duomo had hundreds, was a sculptors gallery. To see them all up close. tourists were permitted to climb all over the roof and EJ the towers. Not visible from the street was a Coca-Cola stand for thirsty visitors high above the ground. lnside, the church was different. Instead of white marble and blinding sunlight, there was darkness, candlelight, shots of purple and red and gold splashing the lloor from the stained-glass windows, and huge vaulted ceilings almost disappear- ing overhead. A few kilometers north, the Alps began. In the mountains, lakes filled most of the valleys. The town of Como nestled between peaks at the end of one lake. From the top of a funicular, sailors could look through the mists to Switzerland and other lakes and peaks. With permission from Swiss authorities hundreds of miles away in Berne, the capital, Oriskany sailors were passed across the border at Chiasso. There the men mailed postcards and ate Suisse chocolate and drank Schweiz beer. Strangely enough, not one man remembered to taste the cheese. An hour later, they recrossed the border, contented and world travelers. Il Duomo, the gorgeous cathedral on Milan's city square. Window ghoppers see some of the world's finest watches- Ornafe cathedral of the C0Yfl1USlU ' 00 lf5 neo' Pavin- Eyes across the border. Sailors see Switzerland from o mountaintop near Como ln the cloisfer garden of the cathedral al Puvlfi-