This picture set is the first part out of three of a project on Milano: “Postcards from Milano, Lido in autunno”.
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The Lido is Milano sea side. Can you imagine it on a summer week end, full of enthusiast swimmers and sun bathers?
Panarea, my Panarea, although mistreated by Nanni Moretti in his Caro Diario, still yours are the most beautiful streets of the Aeolian islands.
White walls of Panarea, arches
White walls of Panarea, walls
White walls of Panarea, entrances
White walls of Panarea, street plants
White walls of Panarea, windows
On the road cutting through Gotthard Pass, hidden into the mountains bowels, there is the strongest Swiss war-citadel: the Sasso.
Operative until few years ago, the Sasso is an intricate network of tunnels carved into stone: it is the last Swiss stronghold against the Fascist Italy between 1940 and 1945.
Each tunnel of the Sasso, the deepest 3.5 kilometer-long, leads to underground barracks, head quarters and outdoor shooting positions, connected by ladders and even underground railways.
In the core of the citadel, kilometer-long pipes bring water and air and electricity for supporting life of soldiers and workers in the barracks: a total of 240 operatives was living here.
The Swiss General Guisan ordered the construction of Sasso in 1940. Together with two additional fortresses at the West and East corners of Switzerland, Sasso was built as last resistance against the German Nazis and the Italian Fascists.
From its control room, Sasso was ready to shoot 50 cm (!) calibers to collapse two mountain passes, thus to stop enemy soldiers from crossing the Alps. Mountains, in the mind of General Guisan, would have been the last, desperate refuge of the Swiss folk in case of invasion of the flat lands.
Nowadays the cannons are not anymore operative … but they still watch down the Southern valleys, waiting for the enemy to come.
Drive on the longest Swiss monument: Tremola road, from Airolo up to Saint Gotthard pass (2091 m.s.l.)
Where asphalt gives road to stone, here is the beginning of a very peculiar alpine road: the Tremola.
Thirty-seven hairpin turns in just nine kilometers: the finish line 900 meters above, at the Ospizio
Enjoy the breathtaking panorama while climbing up the soft steep.
Every turn has its name : Fopa, Santirana, Calanchitt … drive through at slow pace to enjoy all of them.
By motorbike, car or bike, here is the end of the Tremola: ready to explore what the Gotthard pass has to offer?
Walkers and biker.
Basket player and walkers.
Eaters and biker.
… which in Italian means: small Bern world. All pictures shot from Kirchenfeldbrücke, above the river Aare, Bern, Switzerland.
Copyright 2011-2021 Lorenzo Borghi. All rights reserved
