438> Mt. Truth + the isle where Joyce got bewitched: Swiss primitive socialism + Bauhaus boars | |
23 June > Monte Verità (Switzerland) > in the last post we mentioned the place we stay (the «hill of truth») = an old vegetarian nudist colony that felt like a sanatorium strait outta Magic Mountain when in fact (weave sints become informed) in yrs past it = a utopian ± «primitive socialist» sanatorium where the likes of Herman Hesse + Carl Jung + Paul Klee hung out + the hotel + its furnishings where we sleep come designed in Bauhaus style > had planned to hike Poncione Piancascia today but got lost finding the road to the Verzasca valley + Lavertezzo wound up insanely narrow roads no margin for error lots of traffic thru not so intresting suburbs followed a sign for Brione cuz that = the name of the village where trail started but evidently Brione also the name of a suburb of Locarno + no map ± GPS just instructions we scribbled onto a napkin figured we lost when we circled back up above Locarno saw a trailhead + figured hey lets just start hiking up the mountain parked + started walking up steps thru peepole's backyards now + then the «trail» followed the road + started to get confusing tons of trails + roads branching off every which way massive rats nest realized we'd never find our way back to the car if we pushed on so went back + as we drove back we saw Orsina which we recognized as the place where u catch some cablecar up the mtn so figured wut the hell destiny parked + waited then up to Cardada another chairlift brought u even higher but this seemed decadent so we just walked again convoluted network of trails bizarre Swiss logic hard to figure out wut went where no simple loop trail cant understand the Italian the Swiss speak + most in these parts speak German every1 hesitant to see witch landgauge to initiate conversation in + seems every1 just likes to stroll on nature trails saw lots of ppl lowdown w/ ski poles + fancy gear in big groups yodeling + singing strait of Sound of Music eventually after Cimetta (where the chairlift went) things thinned out didnt see any1 after that xcept sheep + cows up to Cima della Trosa + then a peak past that u think Madone up a steep ridge where sum sheep grazed in a saddle between a double-peak from up there 360° view of alps to north + Lago Maggiore to south 24 June > strait from the hill of truth we ran/walked up Corona dei Pinci/Casone wut they said = a 6 hr trip (annoying how they (Swiss + Italians) only give distance in hrs not km+ ½ the time u dont know if it means RT or not) we did it in 3 + got lost @ 1 pt going down to some goat farm had to backtrack back up ½ an hour > saw J + R's talk (purpose of our trip not just to grow vegetables naked) then as a group (sum 50+ aggie types) went to Isola Brissago a private isle where lived sum rich Russian Baroness (Antoinette St Leger) collecting exotic plants after her Irish husband died James Joyce visited + stayed there evidently he (according to this site) «was not impressed, referring to her as a woman who had buried seven husbands without shedding a tear. He may have had her in mind as he wrote the chapter of Ulysses about Circe, the Greek goddess who bewitched those men unlucky enough to be stranded upon her island» > we toured the botanical gardens w/ hysterical tour guides not in funny sense but borderline pazze wandering wombs ate big pig shanks for dinner sat next to guys from Uganda + Zimbabwe + our old friends R + T (who we seem to see in most every country around the world) |
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437 <( )> 439 > Viconcrete poetree + seedy arkhives «not books but 3D spaces where any sensorial experience finds a suitable abode» | |
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