Simplon Pass

We drove from Italy back to Switzerland across the Simplon Pass along the road built by Napoleon after a contingent of troops had trouble getting over the pass during his Italian campaign. Napoleon had crossed with less trouble over the Great Saint Bernard Pass and ordered a similar road and hospice as existed over that pass to be built across the Simplon pass. The picture above, taken in 1890, is of the Napoleonic road and the hospice.

We booked a room in the hospice, which is run by the Saint Bernard monks, and took a walk on the mountainside behind it. Wordsworth hiked over the pass in 1790 and Byron rode over the pass on October 9, 1816. Both wrote about it.

A man named John Cam Hobhouse, who was traveling with Byron, wrote in his diary that they reached the summit at 5 p.m. and that it was "very cold."

Despite local tourist lore, Napoleon never crossed the Alps at Simplon.

The air was bitter cold, but clear. The mountains were beautiful.


In the end, though, we decided not to stay at the hospice and drove on toward Gruyeres.