In the footsteps of DH Lawrence: across the Alps from Germany to Italy

More than a century on, the route from Konstanz to Como across lakes and Swiss mountains must also contend with traffic, but it still inspires a novel

‘When I went from Constance, it was on a small steamer down the Rhine to Schaffhausen.” So wrote DH Lawrence in 1913. While his lover Frieda Weekley (née von Richthofen) was trying to explain their love affair to her family in Germany, Lawrence decided to walk south across the Alps, to Como and Milan, about 230 miles, taking steamers on the rivers and lakes where possible.

In 2022, I followed him with half an idea for a novel. I took the train to Konstanz and found a pretty little town of stone courtyards and half-timbered houses. But at once my reenactment ran into a hitch: Trockenheit, said the sign on the lakeshore – drought. It was August, the Rhine was unusually low, the steamers couldn’t reach Schaffhausen, only Stein am Rhein. Half the distance.

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