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How times change...
Feb. 12th, 2008 05:28 pmOne of my favourite historio-fantasy type books is Sara Douglass' The Crucible trilogy, one of the many examples i cite when arguing that it takes a proper medievalist to write good fantasy novels. Quite early on in the first book there is a captivating description of a journey by foot and mule train over the treacherous and narrow Brenner pass from Italy into what is now Austria. I can't find much information on the medieval state of the pass online, so I'm just going to assume Douglass knows her stuff.
Wikipedia, my good friend, tells me the pass was first made a road by the Romans, and that it was a trackway for mule trains and carts until a carriage road was opened in the 1770s.
Now? A six-lane suspended highway known as the 'Europe Bridge', high above the valley floor. Kind of makes a mockery of what was once a long and dangerous route, doesn't it?
Wikipedia, my good friend, tells me the pass was first made a road by the Romans, and that it was a trackway for mule trains and carts until a carriage road was opened in the 1770s.
Now? A six-lane suspended highway known as the 'Europe Bridge', high above the valley floor. Kind of makes a mockery of what was once a long and dangerous route, doesn't it?
