My original question had all the clues I gathered from the novel,but I was only allowed 421 characters. My conclusions came very near to what you answer in the blog. I originally thought there were mountains no matter which way the Austrian party went, but a closer look at Google Maps showed me that Northern Italy is less mountainous than I had thought, and from what I gathered about Alpennia's location, a route via Marseille makes more sense.
My original question had all the clues I gathered from the novel,but I was only allowed 421 characters. My conclusions came very near to what you answer in the blog.
I originally thought there were mountains no matter which way the Austrian party went, but a closer look at Google Maps showed me that Northern Italy is less mountainous than I had thought, and from what I gathered about Alpennia's location, a route via Marseille makes more sense.