4 August Locarno

In the morning we had an official tour of Locarno with a guide named Marina. She was phenomenal, a former board member on the tourist bureau. She explained how the colors of the Ticinese flag represent the different ideologies of the two halves of Ticino: Sotto and Sopraceneri. Sottoceneri is more forward-looking in Lugano, and Sopraceneri (around Lago Maggiore) is much more interested in preserving tradition. Hence the high rise apartments and development in Lugano that doesn’t really exist in Locarno. I believe the blue part of the flag is Sopra.

Marina was full of fun facts, but I also found it fascinating that the arcades along the north edge of the Piazza Grande were originally for docking boats since the lake used to be that high. If you’ve been to Locarno, you are scratching your chin and nodding, marveling at this fact. If you’ve never been to Locarno, you are slapping your head asking why you’re such a loser.

My work at La Perla continued to call me across the lake and I spent much of the next two weeks at home. There was no free lunch at the hostel and far fewer films in the middle of the day, so it was easy to go home for some amazing bread, salami, pickles and mozzarella. Unfortunately, La Perla is one of those projects where the more time you spend there, the more work there is to do.

I returned to Locarno each evening for dinner and films. Opening night at the Piazza is a special event – and a first for these students. I had been to the Piazza each of the last two years with Jaimey and prior groups. The film, Au Fond du Bois, was decent but politically problematic. One of those where the aristocratic girl falls in love with her animalistic homeless rapist in the 19^th Century in France type flicks.

When we got back to the hostel, I overheard the students next door to me complaining about the heat. One of them claimed to be working on getting the air conditioning working. I burst into laughter seeing him fiddle with the radiator. I asked him where he was from. He stared at me: “LA, why?” I recovered quickly. “You know, a few years ago, I probably would have done the exact same things. We just don’t have radiators in California.”