More Switzerland, or is it Italy?
May. 27th, 2005 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakToday: We drove from snowy mountains to the Lago Maggiore where palm trees stand, oranges bloom (had to get a Goethe quote in there somehow) and it's Italy in all but in name. You even cross a bit of Italy to get here. But it's Switzerland - the Centovalli, dramatic rivers with incredible sone formations and old bridges, with twofold arches - the Valle Verzasca - and Ascona, where we spend the right, has a promenade and yellow and red houses to compete with any Italian city. Our hotel is made to look a bit like an old castle.
Now we had planned to cross another pass to get here, but no, it was blocked, so what you do instead is take the train - the Simplon tunnel, to be precise. Endless (only 20 minutes in fact, but it's a really dark tunnel straight through a mountain on a fast train when you can't get out of your car and you think if that train ever crashes, you'll never see daylight again - so imagine: leaving the snowy mountains with their firtrees and grass, and the wood houses with stone columns and stone roofs (really, many roofs are made of granite stones from the mountains) behind, and arrive in Italian mountains, with leafy treas, and the clear air exchanged for some mist rising from the river below. Later from the lake itself. So it's really like crossng worlds.
The island on the lake we visited today via boat had a lot of rare plants on it, some rich woman's whim who then abandoned the island because her husband for whom she had created it died - among other things, an American agave which supposedly blooms only once in 15 years, and is blooming now. It looks like a gigantic candelier crossed with a lantern pole. Something very elegant and artificial. But it's real.
And again, I have to rave about the river. With its very clear, very cold blueish water - people were warned via signs not to bathe there, because of the dangerous undercurrents, but they did so nonetheless. Lots of people draped on dangerous rocks and dipping into that very cool water. The Aged Parent and self were seriously tempted, I have to admit. But we went for the hotel swimming pool instead.
Due to the wireless here, I could check some stuff.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
karabair, why doesn't Todd talk to Kara? penknife and artaxastra, congrats! Rob, ditto!
And: a decent Vader and Palpatine ficlet.
Now back to being offline, and admiring nature.
Now we had planned to cross another pass to get here, but no, it was blocked, so what you do instead is take the train - the Simplon tunnel, to be precise. Endless (only 20 minutes in fact, but it's a really dark tunnel straight through a mountain on a fast train when you can't get out of your car and you think if that train ever crashes, you'll never see daylight again - so imagine: leaving the snowy mountains with their firtrees and grass, and the wood houses with stone columns and stone roofs (really, many roofs are made of granite stones from the mountains) behind, and arrive in Italian mountains, with leafy treas, and the clear air exchanged for some mist rising from the river below. Later from the lake itself. So it's really like crossng worlds.
The island on the lake we visited today via boat had a lot of rare plants on it, some rich woman's whim who then abandoned the island because her husband for whom she had created it died - among other things, an American agave which supposedly blooms only once in 15 years, and is blooming now. It looks like a gigantic candelier crossed with a lantern pole. Something very elegant and artificial. But it's real.
And again, I have to rave about the river. With its very clear, very cold blueish water - people were warned via signs not to bathe there, because of the dangerous undercurrents, but they did so nonetheless. Lots of people draped on dangerous rocks and dipping into that very cool water. The Aged Parent and self were seriously tempted, I have to admit. But we went for the hotel swimming pool instead.
Due to the wireless here, I could check some stuff.
karabair, why doesn't Todd talk to Kara? penknife and artaxastra, congrats! Rob, ditto! And: a decent Vader and Palpatine ficlet.
Now back to being offline, and admiring nature.
