Picturesque grassy mountain slopes dotted with immaculate chalets, colorful geraniums blooming beneath the windows; cows grazing contentedly, their bells musically tinkling in the clear mountain air; haunting sounds of alpine horns; Swiss yodeling; and cheese - it's not just myth, as visitors to Switzerland can attest. It's reality. But it's not the entire story. It's merely how we descendants of Swiss immigrants from German-speaking cantons tend to see it.
Switzerland is about one-third the size of Wisconsin. Yet with four national languages, not counting English, and great variations in climate, geography and topography - it is not all Alpine peaks and valleys. One would be hard put to find such diversity within such a small area, and an incredibly successful nation to boot.
We started our tour with two days in Canton Glarus, including a visit to the Laederach chocolate factory in Bilton, followed by a drive to Kloentalersee, a scenic lake in one of Switzerland's 11 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Sites. UNESCO's mission is to highlight and preserve the cultural and geographic aspects of the global community that affect mankind.
Kloentalersee is in the Swiss Tectonic Area Sardona, a site of over 200 years of research history regarding formation of mountains. Some 40 million years ago, deep inside the earth, the African and European plates collided to form the Alps. Study of the geologic features of this well-preserved site makes possible the reconstruction of rock movements that occurred millions of years ago.
Having visited the canton so significant to the history of Green County, members of our Turner Hall Swiss Heritage Tour Group would the next day be treated to another view of this incredibly diverse country.
Leaving Glarus, we head east along Wallensee, then south through Chur in the eastern canton of Graubuenden, then south along the Viamala Region. We stop at Viamala Gorge to view the one-thousand-foot cliffs that are separated in some places by only a few yards.
Continuing south, we cross the historic Pass of St. Bernadino in southeastern Switzerland, (not to be confused with the St. Bernard Pass in southwestern Switzerland). The Pass is along the spine of the Alps that separates drainage from the tributaries of the Rhine River that eventually reaches the North Sea, and tributaries of the Rhone River that flows west and south, eventually to the Mediterranean Sea. A few miles to the east of the pass is a point that is a "triple divide." In addition to marking the drainage north of the Alps, it marks the divide south of the Alps between the Rhone that reaches the Mediterranean and the watershed of the Po River that reaches northern Italy and the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Slovenia.
We're soon in Canton Ticino, the only canton of which Italian is the official language. Canton Ticino was annexed by Swiss forces from Italian cities in the 15th century, the last trans-Alpine campaign of the old Swiss Confederacy - 12 cantons at the time.
Between 1798 and 1803, the districts of Bellinzona and Lugano were separate cantons. In 1803 the two cantons were unified to form the present Canton Ticino that joined the Swiss Confederation as a full member. The canton minted its own currency, the Ticinese franco, between 1813 and 1850 when it adopted the Swiss franc.
Despite being very similar to standard Italian, Swiss Italian has some differences because of the presence of French and German from which it assimilates words. Fluency in German is a prerequisite for many jobs, especially in restaurants and shops catering to German-speaking tourists, as well as in the insurance and banking industries.
Lugano is Switzerland's third largest financial center, after Zurich and Geneva. Because of Ticino's shared language and culture, it is closely tied to Italy. Not surprisingly, Italy is an important export market for Ticino. Many Italian companies relocate to Ticino, including because of a more efficient Swiss government bureaucracy than Italy's.
We descend the south side of the Alps, pausing for lunch in Bellinzona, another of Switzerland's UNESCO sites. This World Heritage Site contains three medieval castles. Bellinzona (which translates as "war zone") is located where several key Alpine pass routes converge - a strategic historic location of military and economic importance.
After lunch and a chance to view the castles, we head south toward the city of Locarno. Before entering Locarno, we take a ride on the winding road up the picturesque Verzasca Valley. It is Sunday, and sunbathers outstretched on flat rocks are enjoying the September sunshine and sounds of the rapidly flowing stream.
It is here that the difference between north and south of the Alps really hits you. Instead of wooden chalets we see houses that must be hundreds of years old, completely made of stone. Instead of manicured mountain meadows, the hillsides are covered with trees.
At the end of the road we reach Sonogno and pause to look around, marveling at the old stone houses so well preserved. The economist in me wonders how these people make a living - tourism surely can't support all of them. We conclude that either they are retired, make the arduous commute to Locarno, or are satisfied with the simplest lifestyle - perhaps some combination of the above.
We return along that scenic route and pause at the Versazca Dam, Switzerland's fourth highest. It is the site of 007 James Bond's bungee jump in "GoldenEye" (1995).
As we reach Locarno, the sun is soft and warm, and the vegetation definitely of Mediterranean varieties. Are we in southern California, or Mexico or Italy itself? No, we're in Switzerland, but not the Switzerland that we descendants of German-speaking immigrants usually think of or identify with. We knew that Italian Switzerland exists; it's quite another matter to experience it.
Seems like Italy, but it's still Switzerland.
Next week: Back north of the Alps to the origin of Switzerland.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in the Monroe Times.
Switzerland is about one-third the size of Wisconsin. Yet with four national languages, not counting English, and great variations in climate, geography and topography - it is not all Alpine peaks and valleys. One would be hard put to find such diversity within such a small area, and an incredibly successful nation to boot.
We started our tour with two days in Canton Glarus, including a visit to the Laederach chocolate factory in Bilton, followed by a drive to Kloentalersee, a scenic lake in one of Switzerland's 11 UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Sites. UNESCO's mission is to highlight and preserve the cultural and geographic aspects of the global community that affect mankind.
Kloentalersee is in the Swiss Tectonic Area Sardona, a site of over 200 years of research history regarding formation of mountains. Some 40 million years ago, deep inside the earth, the African and European plates collided to form the Alps. Study of the geologic features of this well-preserved site makes possible the reconstruction of rock movements that occurred millions of years ago.
Having visited the canton so significant to the history of Green County, members of our Turner Hall Swiss Heritage Tour Group would the next day be treated to another view of this incredibly diverse country.
Leaving Glarus, we head east along Wallensee, then south through Chur in the eastern canton of Graubuenden, then south along the Viamala Region. We stop at Viamala Gorge to view the one-thousand-foot cliffs that are separated in some places by only a few yards.
Continuing south, we cross the historic Pass of St. Bernadino in southeastern Switzerland, (not to be confused with the St. Bernard Pass in southwestern Switzerland). The Pass is along the spine of the Alps that separates drainage from the tributaries of the Rhine River that eventually reaches the North Sea, and tributaries of the Rhone River that flows west and south, eventually to the Mediterranean Sea. A few miles to the east of the pass is a point that is a "triple divide." In addition to marking the drainage north of the Alps, it marks the divide south of the Alps between the Rhone that reaches the Mediterranean and the watershed of the Po River that reaches northern Italy and the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Slovenia.
We're soon in Canton Ticino, the only canton of which Italian is the official language. Canton Ticino was annexed by Swiss forces from Italian cities in the 15th century, the last trans-Alpine campaign of the old Swiss Confederacy - 12 cantons at the time.
Between 1798 and 1803, the districts of Bellinzona and Lugano were separate cantons. In 1803 the two cantons were unified to form the present Canton Ticino that joined the Swiss Confederation as a full member. The canton minted its own currency, the Ticinese franco, between 1813 and 1850 when it adopted the Swiss franc.
Despite being very similar to standard Italian, Swiss Italian has some differences because of the presence of French and German from which it assimilates words. Fluency in German is a prerequisite for many jobs, especially in restaurants and shops catering to German-speaking tourists, as well as in the insurance and banking industries.
Lugano is Switzerland's third largest financial center, after Zurich and Geneva. Because of Ticino's shared language and culture, it is closely tied to Italy. Not surprisingly, Italy is an important export market for Ticino. Many Italian companies relocate to Ticino, including because of a more efficient Swiss government bureaucracy than Italy's.
We descend the south side of the Alps, pausing for lunch in Bellinzona, another of Switzerland's UNESCO sites. This World Heritage Site contains three medieval castles. Bellinzona (which translates as "war zone") is located where several key Alpine pass routes converge - a strategic historic location of military and economic importance.
After lunch and a chance to view the castles, we head south toward the city of Locarno. Before entering Locarno, we take a ride on the winding road up the picturesque Verzasca Valley. It is Sunday, and sunbathers outstretched on flat rocks are enjoying the September sunshine and sounds of the rapidly flowing stream.
It is here that the difference between north and south of the Alps really hits you. Instead of wooden chalets we see houses that must be hundreds of years old, completely made of stone. Instead of manicured mountain meadows, the hillsides are covered with trees.
At the end of the road we reach Sonogno and pause to look around, marveling at the old stone houses so well preserved. The economist in me wonders how these people make a living - tourism surely can't support all of them. We conclude that either they are retired, make the arduous commute to Locarno, or are satisfied with the simplest lifestyle - perhaps some combination of the above.
We return along that scenic route and pause at the Versazca Dam, Switzerland's fourth highest. It is the site of 007 James Bond's bungee jump in "GoldenEye" (1995).
As we reach Locarno, the sun is soft and warm, and the vegetation definitely of Mediterranean varieties. Are we in southern California, or Mexico or Italy itself? No, we're in Switzerland, but not the Switzerland that we descendants of German-speaking immigrants usually think of or identify with. We knew that Italian Switzerland exists; it's quite another matter to experience it.
Seems like Italy, but it's still Switzerland.
Next week: Back north of the Alps to the origin of Switzerland.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in the Monroe Times.
