_ 172 _ place called Sant’Ambrogio di Milano. In the afternoon, we arrived at the foot of some high mountains called Mont-Cenis. We travelled along a cool valley and through a little-known city with poor buildings called Susa at the end of the valley, where we began to climb the mountains, which although it was July, were covered in snow. We travelled over a paved road and slept in a village called Novalesa among those mountains, eighteen miles from Sant’Ambrogio di Milano. On the next day, we went up with much effort through those harsh mountains. The road was not very steep because it was very winding, but it was very cold and stony. We climbed for three long hours and reached the summit, passing a few French shepherds’ houses. On the top of this mountain is the lake of Mont-Cenis, half a league around. We began to descend the mountain again over winding roads, not too rough. We arrived at some small places in the bottom of a valley and dined in one of them which was called Lanslebourg. We crossed the River Arc, as we had innumerable others in Lombardy and Piedmont. Lanslebourg is four leagues from Novalesa, for from here on we must talk in leagues. The River Arc divides Piedmont from Savoy. The majority of these people in Piedmont and Savoy suffer from large goiters, caused by the cold of the land and the water.
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