The route plotted is my best guess based on 5 geographic points: Berlin, St. Gottard Pass, Milan, Genoa, and Merton. Information that the Clemenses passed through St. Gottard Pass, Milan and Genoa come from personal correspondences.
February 29, 1892 Monday – Sam and Livy left the children to their studies in Berlin for the sunnier climes of the French Riviera and a three week rest to regain their health. According to Sam’s Feb. 26 to McClure, they took “3 or 4 days” to arrive, or by Mar. 3 or 4. The distance is nearly a thousand miles from Berlin to the Riviera, so they undoubtedly rested one or two nights along the way [Feb. 26 to McClure; Mar. 21 to Moffett]
Livy wrote to Clara Clemens at the Hotel Royal, Berlin. She complained about the cold and the tin boxes filled with hot water placed under the feet on the train from Milan — boxes that didn’t stay warm.
Last night after we reached here papa sent a dispatch to Mr. Phelps at Nice, “Just arrived. Came all the way on snow shoes.”
Livy also wrote of their time in Menton, and her antipathy to English tourists:
As Mr. Clemens wrote we are having a delightfully quiet time here. We went out today to look on at the Battle of Flowers. Many of the carriages were perfectly beautiful in their tasteful arrangement.
This hotel is filled with English people. Such plainness, such countrified dressing such gauche gates I have never before in my life seen. I hope next time to be in a hotel with fewer English. Even if we do not know any of the people it will be more gratifying to ones aesthetic sense [MTP].
Note: To celebrate Menton’s roots in citrus fruit cultivation, the town hosts her Fête des Citrons (lemon festival) once per year, a carnival called “The Battle of Flowers.”
March 24 Thursday – Sam and Livy left Menton for Pisa, Italy with Joseph Verey, their courier. The plan was for Verey to leave them at Pisa and return to Berlin to guide the rest of the party to Rome. The entire trip from Menton to Rome was about 400 miles. Sam and Livy may have stayed in Pisa a day, but arrived in Rome on Mar. 27 [Mar. 27 to Chatto].