Excertps from 1,500-word article

UNDERGROUND TORONTO.

Mississauga, Ont.:- 9.35a.m. The cabbie depositing me at the suburban railway station said I would "catch my death" if I wasn't more careful. Shivering in the station's glass shelter for the next ten minutes I felt he could be right. But then the train arrived, comfortably heated to suit my spring attire, and I warmed to the prospect of escaping winter's icy grasp - if only for a little while............

The outside world this winter morning is grey and white, with temperatures around -6 C (15F), and a light but persistent snowfall. Not that I need to worry about that. Dressed for indoors, I have no intention of venturing out again today. My plans are to enjoy downtown Toronto....

Toronto - devoid of icy sidewalks and honking motorists and bone-chilling winds that whip around street corners. A city of ever-blooming trees and waterfalls, brightly lit avenues bordered with sidewalk cafes, park benches and flowers brightening shop doorways, and best of all a climate-controlled Toronto: warm, dry and windless.

It is of course Toronto's hidden underground city, with a network of tunnels and walkways connecting half a dozen shopping complexes, hotels, cinemas, live theatre, night clubs, subway stations, Toronto's chief railway terminal, and a multi-million dollar domed stadium for sports and theatrical events...........

In subterranean Toronto you can book a trip, get a tooth filled, have your shoes mended and a tennis racket restrung. You can get your hair styled, bank, and see an optometrist. You can swim, watch live theater, buy a chocolate sports car, fresh lobster, a fur coat or a live puppy. Confine yourself to walkways and you won't have to surface for seven blocks. Use the subway, with its clean underground stations and you can carry on for miles, shopping, working and playing in the warm artificial environment.....