The Borromean Islands, Part 1

The day after we arrived in Stresa, we visited the Borromean Islands, located in the Borromean Gulf of Lago Maggiore, all of which may be reached by boat from Stresa and from each other.  Since the 1500s, these islands have been the property of the Borromeo family, who at one time owned a lot of land in the region of Lombardy.  Today, the family is headed by Principe Gilberto VIII and Principessa Bona.  Over the centuries, members of the family have migrated away from Italy, including to the United States and the Philippines, where one set of descendants runs a website dedicated to their family history.

The first island we visited was Isola Madre (mother island), the largest and farthest from Stresa.  On the way, we could see a mountain being quarried for its granite, looming above the town of Baveno.

Much of Isola Madre is taken up by gardens.  After we arrived, we proceeded along a walkway near the island's southern edge, which passes near numerous trees.

This ascending walkway is covered by many types of wisteria.  It was chained off, but still provided a good photo.

As we proceeded around the island, there were many more trees to see.

This round stone building was at one time an ice house.

The yellow building on the right side of this walkway was the residence of the guardian and his wife, at one time the only two permanent inhabitants of Isola Madre.  To the left was a nice shady spot.

That's all for now.  There will be more of Isola Madre in Part 2.

Saturday Evening Links

Now that I've been back for a while, let's see what's going on around here.

From The State Journal-Register, "grief hangs in the air" days after the attack in Charleston.

From The Telegraph, the Charleston church shooter told a friend that his original target was the University of Charleston.

From NBC News, the shooter appears to have had a racist website.

The Daily Caller notes that while politicians voice their views on the Confederate battle flag being displayed in South Carolina, one-time Governor Bill Clinton (D-Ark) had no qualms about commemorating the Confederacy in the Arkansas state flag.

From The New Orleans Advocate, a New Orleans police officer was fatally shot while transporting a suspect.

From the Northwest Herald, the southern Illinois town of Herrin honors coal miners killed in the 1922 Herrin Massacre.

From WGN, three teenagers in New Mexico have been charged with hacking a baby formula website.

From Fox News Latino, a Mexican woman seeking asylum suffers a miscarriage while in custody.

From CBS Chicago, an Illinois state legislator proposes liability insurance for gun owners.

From the Daily Mail, a drunk man in Nanjing, China gets a Darwin Award (dis)honorable mention.  (Since he did actually remove himself from the gene pool, he does not qualify for the award itself.)

From MSN News, ISIS targets young Germans for recruitment.

From Russia Today, protesters in Honduras call for officials to resign.

From Yahoo News, hundreds of thousands Italians rally against gay marriage.

From the Pensacola News Journal, drones are proliferating in Pensacola.

And from ESPN, Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer pitches a no-hitter, coming very close to a perfect game.

Down Lago Di Como And Over To Stresa

After visiting Bellagio, which sits between the two southern branches of Lago di Como, we got back on our boat and continued down the southwest branch toward the city of Como.  Not long after leaving Bellagio, we saw this villa, which is sometimes called "the house of 50 chimneys".

We soon came upon the Villa del Balbianello, which was used for on-location shooting in Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones, along with other nearby places.  Like Anakin and Padme, you can have your wedding there, too.  The villa was also used in the recent James Bond movie Casino Royale.  As you can see, we were not alone.

The next shot is from the south side of the villa.

We later came upon this villa, owned by Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines.  We were told we could stay there for a $30,000 per night.  According to this site, the rate is 115,000 Euros per week.

On the east side of the southwest branch of Lago di Como is Nesso, where several swimmers congregate next to a house that's right on the water.

In another part of Nesso, this bridge connects two neighborhoods separated by a gorge and a waterfall.

Further down Lago di Como on the west side is the village of Moltrasio, where Winston Churchill vacationed after the end of World War II (and losing his re-election bid), spending much of his time painting.

Not far from Como in the village of Cernobbio is the Villa D'Este, one of Italy's best-known hotels.

Not long after passing the Villa D'Este, we arrived in Como and were reunited with our bus.  We then rode to Stresa, on the west shore of Lago Maggiore, where we would stay for the rest the tour.  After settling in, I took a look across the street.

I could also see Lago Maggiore, including Isola Bella (beautiful island) and Isola dei Pescatori (island of the fishermen) behind it.  We would visit both later on.

UPDATE:  The specific page which indicated that Branson's villa can be rented for €115,000 per week no longer exists, so instead I've linked the site Discover Lake Como.  Browse the place at your leisure.

Bellagio

Lago di Como in northern Italy is shaped like an upside-down letter "y".  On the promontory that separates the two branches of the lake is town of Bellagio, which we visited after arriving by boat from Tremezzo, on the west side of the lake.  Here's part of the north end of Bellagio, seen while we were still on the boat.

Also on the northern end of Bellagio is this house, named "Fanny".

We ate lunch at a local restaurant, whose balcony gave us this view looking west.

Near the restaurant, a street is a stairway.

Here's downtown Bellagio's largest church, surrounded by cars.

This was our boat.

After some free time, we got back on board and proceeded southward toward the lake's namesake city of Como.  As we pulled away, I got a last look at Bellagio.

For more information on Bellagio, go here, here and here.

Double Standard, Anyone?

For a while, I've noticed a certain double standard regarding collective responsibility, where violent acts by Muslims against non-Muslims must never be blamed on anyone other than the individual perpetrators, and also not on Islam itself, but violence by whites against non-whites can be attributed to alleged racism coming from white people in general.  Today, SooperMexican has shown an example of this double standard coming from Salon, as shown in some of their Tweets.

As Sooper points out, Salon would have "White America" answering for the Charleston church shootings, but did not expect Muslims to "apologize for the Tsarnaevs".  Sooper further notes that one can choose to be Muslim, but cannot chose to be white.  If anything, in my own opinion, this double standard would be a bit less unfair in the opposite direction.

Read the full blogpost.

Charleston Shooter In Custody

As has been widely reported, yesterday, a man fatally shot nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.  The suspect, Dylann Roof, was apprehended over 200 miles away in Shelby, NC.  He is now in custody in South Carolina and has reportedly confessed to the shootings.  His alleged motivation was a desire to start a race war.

Read more at ABC News, The Telegraph, CNN, WLTX and ABC11.

From Switzerland To Italy

After we had spent a few days in and around St. Moritz, Switzerland, the time came to get on the bus and go to Italy.  Our course would take us westward from the Engadin valley over the Maloja (pronounced "mah-LOY-ah") Pass, through the Italian-speaking area of Val Bregaglia, and then across the border into Italy a few miles east of Chiavenna.  After entering Chiavenna, we turned southward toward Lago di Como.

Due to the high elevation of St. Moritz and the Engadin, we didn't didn't have to climb up very far to get over the Maloja Pass.  Going down the other side, however, was another story.  The switchbacks on the road and the drop in elevation made Arizona state route 89A north of Sedona look like child's play.  Here we can see a switchback just below us, and a few more farther down.

After we got down into the Val Bregaglia, I took a picture of this small village through the front window of the bus.

Somewhere along the way was this waterfall, behind a house.

After passing through Chiavenna, we continued southward along the western shore of Lago di Como, until we arrived at Tremezzo, to take a short boat ride to Bellagio.  The weather was definitely sunnier than it had been in the Engadin earlier that day.

As our boat pulled away, we could see the Grand Hotel Tremezzo.

Here's the dock where we had boarded the boat.

While looking up Tremezzo on Googlemaps, I became confused when the name Tremezzina turned up instead.  A look at Wiki explains the apparent discrepancy.

Tremezzina is a comune in the province of Como, in Lombardy, that formed on 25 May 2014[1] from a merger of the comunes of Lenno, Mezzegra, Ossuccio and Tremezzo. [emphasis and link in original]

So if you're interested in Tremezzo, Italy, be sure to also look up the name Tremezzina.

San Gian's Church And Celerina

Celerina is small town northeast of St. Moritz, just one railroad stop away, and is also known as Schlarigna.  With some free time, I wanted to check out something I had seen from the road when our tour bus passed through the area on the way to Zuoz and Pontresina.  It was an old church, which included a tower that appeared to be in ruins, just outside of Celerina.  I learned that the church was named San Gian, and that the tower had been struck by lightning and the damaged portion not replaced.  Here's the church looking from the west.

As I continued to approach the church, a glider soared overhead.

I took this shot from the east side of the church.

A trail led up to an area behind the church, which would be to the right in the above photo, where I could see the graveyard, in which some work was going on.

After visiting the church grounds, I walked back to Celerina, found a place to eat lunch, and eventually rode a train back to St. Moritz.

A Hike Around The St. Moritzer See

As I mentioned a few posts ago, St. Moritz, Switzerland sits next to its own lake, the St. Moritzer See.  The lake is surrounded by pedestrian trails, which according to our tour guide totaled about three miles, so off I went.  Like the Inn River that flows into and out of it, the lake extends roughly southwest to northeast.  Here's a view from the northeastern side of the lake, looking southwestward.

I took a slight detour from the lake near its outlet, to see the Inn continuing its journey to Austria.

Near the outlet was this railroad viaduct.

After I got back to the lake and continued around it, I saw a cable car going over part of the city.

Here's downtown St. Moritz and the area above it, with a few clouds around the higher elevations.

In this area east of downtown, clouds appear to separate the forested area from the rocky area further uphill.

As I got closer to the southwest end of the lake, I took this shot, centered on a church.

Next to the church is the Inn, upstream from the lake.

This bridge takes the trail over the Inn, just before it enters the lake.

Riding The Bernina Express, Part 2

To pick up where Part 1 left off, we stopped at a place called Alp Grüm, near the top of the Bernina Pass, which gave us a chance to take some pictures.  Before I got back on the train, I took this shot of the structure through which we had passed just before stopping.  It includes a slanted roof supported by spaced poles, and appears to be intended to protect trains from rockslides and avalanches.  I've also seen the same sort of thing built over roads in the Alps.

After the train resumed its course, we descended down the other side of the pass through numerous switchbacks.  These curves gave me a chance to take pictures of where the train had just been, such as over this viaduct.

We stopped for a few minutes in Brusio, to let a train going in the opposite direction to pass.  From here, we can see two houses, the top of a church tower, the sides of the narrow valley in which we're traveling, and more mountains in the background.  The houses aren't slanted.  I merely held my camera at a slightly odd angle.

Here's some more of Brusio, looking back uphill in the general direction from which we approached.

The front of the train goes around the Brusio viaduct, where the track circles under itself, as seen from our position in the last car.

The front of the train continues toward the spot where the track goes under the viaduct, passing three sculptures.  The white line above the train is the track uphill from the viaduct, where we had been shortly before.

Continuing downhill after passing under the viaduct, we observe a step in the process of making Swiss cheese.

As our train continued southward, I saw that the tracks often ran parallel to roads, crossed roads at sharp angles, and in a few places actually ran down one side of the street.  We eventually crossed the border and reached our destination of Tirano, Italy.  Not far from the track is the Santuario della Madonna di Tirano.

The Fiume Adda runs through the center of town.

To get around Tirano, it may be advantageous to board another type of "train".

After some sightseeing, and lunch at Antica Osteria dell'Angelo, we returned to St. Moritz by bus.