Ruskin first saw the Alps from Schaffhausen on the Ruskin family's first extended tour of continental Europe in 1833. 'They were clear as crystal, sharp on the pure horizon sky, and already tinged with rose by the sinking sun.... I went down that evening from the garden-terrace at Schaffhausen with my destiny fixed in all of it that was to be sacred and useful...' ( Works, 35.115). He visited again in 1835 inspired by de Saussure's Voyages dans les Alpes (1779-96). Ruskin kept a diary of the visits which lasted for three months. This included geological observations and sketches. In 1842 at Chamonix, near Mont Blanc, he began Modern Painters as a defence of Turner and made further Alpine studies. These continued in 1844. He visited again in 1849, attempting to capture his boyhood delight in the Alps. He spent time alone and with his childhood friend Richard Fall. He drew, and studied the geology, geomorphology, flora and meteorology of the Alps. He also sketched under the influence of Turner's Liber Studiorum and sought out the sites of Turner's drawings including the St Gothard. He completed forty-seven 'finished' drawings including La Cascade de la Folie, Chamonix. With his guide Joseph Couttet he undertook a tour of Mont Blanc. On this visit Ruskin also observed the poverty of the peasantry of the lower Alps, foreshadowing the contrasting chapters 'The Mountain Glory' and 'The Mountain Gloom' of the fourth volume of Modern Painters (1856). Ruskin's second visit to the Alps in 1849 took place with his wife Effie who saw the Alps for the first time. She saw both their distant glory and their immediate destitution. Ruskin visited again in 1851 and, following the completion of his major architectural works in Venice, returned to the study of the Alps in 1854, 1856 (when he studied Swiss towns including Fribourg, Berne and Vevay), 1858 (the southern Alps), 1859 (the northern Alps), 1860 (Sallenches and Chamonix), 1861 (Lucerne and Altorf), 1862 (the St Gothard), 1863 (Bonneville and the study of Alpine limestones) and 1866 (Oberland, Lucerne and the study of Alpine breccias). In 1862 he planned to live in Switzerland and in 1863 bought land at Chamonix, but these plans were not realised. The Alps formed one of the major foci of Ruskin's studies, contributing to his work in the natural sciences, architecture, and society. Later visits occurred in 1866, 1869 and 1870. He returned in 1876 and 1882. His last visit took place on his final tour of continental Europe in 1888.