Earth's backbone

Some passages of great writers that describe the Simplon Pass are worth recalling. As said, they were many, but here we are just providing you with a taste of what was said.

"It was ten o'clock in the evening when we arrived in Domodossola, at the foot of the Simplon Pass; but as the moon was shining brightly, and there was not even one cloud in the starry sky, it was not yet time to go to bed, or to go anywhere else to that matter, if not forward.  We therefore got hold of a small carriage and, after a few moments of hesitation, we started to ascend. It was already the end of November, and because the snow reached four or five feet on the mountain path (in other parts the snow stacked by the wind was already taller than this), and the cold air bit our flesh. But the nighttime peacefulness and the wonderful beauty of the road, with the impenetrable shadows and the deep obscurity, the sudden turns, after which we immediately passed onto moonlit paths, and the incessant scroll of the falling water, at each step, made the trip increasingly wonderful. We soon left behind the Italian tranquil villages, which slept under the moonlight, and the road started to become increasingly tortuous, moving among black trees. And, after a short while, it emerged in a bare area, which was very steep and tiring, upon which the moon shone brightly, high above. The huge noise made by the water slowly became even louder. And the wonderful road, after crossing the river on a bridge, penetrated between two perpendicular huge rock walls, which completely removed all the moonlight, allowing us only to see some stars, which shone brightly in the skyline above us. Then we lost these too, within the deep obscurity of a rock cavern..."
Charles Dickens

"It was like travelling through the Earth's backbone".
Hans Christian Andersen

"This road that competes with those built by Tiberius Nerone, Julius Caesar and Domitian, on which three-thousand workers worked on each day (...) It is the duty of those who describe itineraries and not us, to detail the exact number of bridges, tunnels traversed and how many aqueducts are stepped over. We prefer to renounce, also because no description could ever give the idea of the beauty encountered with each step taken, of the contrasts and harmonies created by the Ganter and Saltina valleys, of the jumping waterfalls that reflect upon the iced mirrors".
Alexandre Dumas