Day 9 (Roman bridge over not at all troubled water)

On Tuesday we'd planned to go swimming at one of the spots I knew from my previous stay in Ticino (= the name of the Italian Kanton we were staying in. The link leads to an external site). The place was just past the next village (Intragna) en required us to park the car on a small parking place along side a narrow (about 1.5 lane wide) mountain road. Followed by a 10 minute steep hike down to a restored Roman bridge (picture found on the web).

Mind you even though the bridge is called Ponte Romano (lit.: Roman bridge) it wasn't really built by the Romans. According to the plaque the bridge was built in the 14th century and restored in 1985. Nevertheless legend has it that this bridge was preceded by a bridge that was actually built by the Romans. Anyway, once we'd crossed the bridge we had to climb down another 40 - 50 meters to the stream. The stream's name is Melezza and is the main stream through Centovalli (lit.: A hundred valleys), a valley which originates in Italy (the border being about 12 km away).

As we were relatively early we were one of the first visitors that day, meaning that we could pick the best spot right below the bridge.

I've always loved water, specially this kind of streaming water surrounded by lots of rocks.

So I immediately grabbed the cam en started wasting tape, resulting in about 30 minutes of nothing but rocks and water. But luckily also other subjects where present to contrast the monotonous streaming water.

And I even managed to shoot a completely different bird, although naturally once I'd gotten the mini tripod out and the camera rigged to it, it decided to fly off. Hence the shaken image.

After a while of reading, playing Triominos and generally lazing around...

...we decided to go for a swim. That is, I decided to go for a swim because I could no longer resist the little lake that was laying there so invitingly.

Sandra on the other hand found that she needed some more time to get acquainted with the water temperature.

About an hour after our arrival the place started to fill up some more, mind you compared to Dutch beaches the place was still deserted. We stayed there until about 3 PM, slowly getting our white skin to get used to sunlight. Climbing back up to the bridge we found that the temperature near the stream was a lot more bearable than further away from it. Meaning that once I was standing on the bridge I was so hot and soaked that I could have done with another swim. But alas, we had to walk up for another 10 minutes along a steep trail to get to the car. Which by that time had managed to perfect its act of being a furnace. Thank God for air-conditioning!

Back in the hotel we both found that the day' s rigorous exercise prompted for a little siesta in the comfort of our relatively cool room. At around 7 PM we got ourselves ready for dinner in Locarno (picture found on the web). We had dinner at the Ristoranti di Thomas, a place that I've also been to on my previous trip. Sandra had the Lasagna and I had the Spaghetti di Mare, followed by a a brilliant cake for Sandra and a Coretto (Espresso with Grappa) for me. Wonderful stuff! We finished off the evening with a nice stroll through the beautiful town of Locarno.

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