way since 1943. The formal outlet of the Swiss minority is the club and its journal, DER KREIS, located in German speaking Zurich although this magazine, like most of Switzerland's people, is tri-lingual.
Like all the other main towns in this nation, Zurich borders a large lake with majestic mountains rising above it all around wherever the eye can reach. It is this special feature which gives to the cities of Switzerland their peculiar loveli-
ness.
there, to say the least, is at a minimum. It doesn't seem to go with the milieu. A stroll along the Arno in nocturnal hours must suffice, and even then the police occasionally buzz by with flashlights glaring and bothersome questions. Just enough to dampen adventurous spirits.
In Rome, as well, there are night spots, let alone bars as we are familiar with the name. The cause of this dim situation is due to the policies of the omnipresent Vatican, although the Vatican itself, with unintended paradox, has instituted a fine bar within its walls for the use of any sanctimonious sacerdote who cares for an afternoon nip.
Making my way over the Gotthard Pass to the enchanted land of "masks, tapers and guitars," I stopped first at Florence on the Arno. All of Florence is one magnificent museum of Renaissance architecture, priceless sculpture, paintings and OBJETS D'ART. Except for the many tourists and English habitues, the town hardly can be said to thrive. Night life
Due to the wrathful zeal of clerical authorities in eradicating pleasures of the flesh there exists no indoor gathering place for our minority, or for anyone else for that matter. Consequently, prostitution by both sexes is given an impetus that it enjoys in few other places in Europe and thrives there openly and flagrantly. Social gay life in Italy is non-existent for the foreign itinerant. The tourist visits the streets, piazzas, gardens, and the splendor of ruins by night, and during the warmer months of the year, such well trodden paths as the Villa Borghese, the Scala di Spagna, and the monumental Coliseum.
Speaking of the Coliseum, one would never know that the vast, pleasure-seeking crowds of Roman times had ever left the spot. The ferocity of the amphitheatre's original lions is fully matched these days by the forwardness and the garish lack of inhibition of its contemporary visitors.
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