Tag Archives: architecture

Apr7

Touring Tirano

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Touring Tirano
Touring Tirano

A modest town in the shadow of the Alps: Tirano attracts visitors, one must admit, mainly because there the Bernina Express terminates.

An afternoon spent exploring the surrounds did not disappoint, however. One main restaurant manfully acts as the tourism center: steps from the train station, it promises hot meals prepared fast all day (“no break in the afternoon!” – a marketing strategy revealing of the local customs), plus luggage storage and, naturally, wi-fi.

I dropped off my backpack and turned my steps towards the town’s true attraction: la Basilica Madonna di Tirano, a church founded more than half a millennium ago.

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Apr5

Morning in Milan

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Morning in Milan
Morning in Milan

You must see the Castello, the hotel receptionist said, shaking his head sorrowfully. You can’t come to Milan without seeing the Castello.

The cultural contrast after crossing the Alps struck me forcefully at moments like this. In Liechtenstein’s little corner between Switzerland and Austria, a restaurant dinner cost triple (10 EUR, say, for a plate of pasta in Tirano — 30 CHF if you were lucky at a sit-down restaurant in Liechtenstein). On the other hand, the sun-swept cities of Italy couldn’t quite match, it must be admitted, that same sparkle of care and cleanliness.

Above all, the German-speaking staff had regarded me with polite distance, making themselves more invisible than not. In Milan, my newfound friend fetched out a map and planned my itinerary, suggesting enough sites to occupy me for several days.

The next morning, after I tore myself away from Il Duomo, I went to see the Castello.

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Apr4

Milan’s Marvel

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Milan’s Marvel
Milan’s Marvel

The Bernina Express deposited me in northern Italy, where a bevy of airports offered flights back to London.

Some internet sleuthing decided me on Milan, a city too glorious for the meagre half day my itinerary afforded it — but too marvelous to pass up the chance of visiting either, however brief.

I determined to brush off my Italian and attend an early mass at the Duomo, Milan’s crown jewel: a Gothic cathedral of dazzling proportions.

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Nov15

Chrysanthemum: Two Days in Taiwan

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Chrysanthemum: Two Days in Taiwan
Chrysanthemum: Two Days in Taiwan

The streets of Taipei churn with traffic, but through all the orderly channels absent in Hanoi. The fleets of motorbikes, halting at precisely delineated squares at intervals, marked a strange transition for me.

I realized I had been circling my way back to the heart of Japan — from the foreign territory of Thailand and Cambodia, to the more closely linked Vietnam, and now my island’s next door neighbor — teeing up for the flight to Tokyo and then homeward.

With just three nights to absorb Taiwan, I reluctantly relinquished hopes of traveling by rail to their jewel attraction, Sun Moon Lake. I would concentrate on all the fascinations its capital city had to offer.

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