The longest day of travel was thirteen hours in duration, involving a journey from Brieg over the Simplon to Domo d’Ossola, a distance of over fourteen leagues. The military road, finished in 1805 at the joint expense of France and Italy under Buonaparte’s direction, was such an extraordinary feat of engineering that the ascension of the carriage was barely perceptible. The road, cut through rocks and bridging precipices, boldly defied every obstruction, although some parts of the route were desolate in the extreme, and the sharp descents on the side of the road opposite the mountain-side served to remind the travellers of the perils entailed in the journey through these mountains. None of the family had expected to find so much beauty and sights of such admirable grandeur on this part of their road. The highway itself was consistently five-and-twenty Paris feet wide, and some fifty bridges joined the mountains to form a safe passage. Travelling along it, the Darcys could readily believe why it was universally regarded as the eighth wonder of the world.

Beginning at Glis, near-by Brieg, the Simplon passed over a bridge on the Saltine through villages, forests, and tremendous precipices to the first of the numerous galleries, often a league or longer in length. The passageway was extremely flat and good, with a substantial railing protecting any side where the ground fell away; and where the road had been cut deep into the mountain-side, a thick stone wall had been constructed with openings along its base, allowing water to pass through that otherwise would have flooded the road. A short distance past the bridge of Ganther dwelt the inspector of the road, who gave the travellers greeting and refreshment. The Darcys stopt for a few minutes to take advantage of the respite, whilst Georgiana hastily sketched the handsome, white stone bridge that spanned the Saltine and led to the second gallery.

Resuming their road, the Darcys passed over alarming chasms, marvellous bridge-works, enormous seas of glacial ice, and powerful cataracts falling from great heights of gorges cut into the mountains above. The glaciers, Georgiana explained, were called Tavernetto; to one side was the glacier of the Ganther, and the other stretched toward Italy. The streams formed from the melting ice produced a seemingly infinite number of cascades. The Gallery of the Glaciers could be viewed by looking back along the great road through the mountain, appearing for all the world as though Titans had carved the passageway through the very centre of the immense monument of rock, over which flowed the many cascades. The Darcys were awed by the genius that had envisioned such a feat, much less contrived its construction.