Val Blenio, TI
This isn't an entirely random set of holiday snaps, as there was a purpose to them, and a connection of sorts with Glasgow.
In the course of work I'd got to know Raymond Ferrari who was a retired fireman (what he didn't tell me, and I only learned as a result of last year's commemoration, is that early in his career he had been lucky to survive the terrible Cheapside disaster). Around that time I was in the habit of spending 2 or 3 late summer weeks in the Swiss Alps, seeing what I could get up, and when I told him this he mentioned that his grandfather had come to Glasgow from Switzerland around the time of the Great War, having been born in the village of Ludiano in the Val Blenio, in the Italian-speaking canton Ticino. Raymond had a hankering to see where his ancestors had lived but domestic circumstances made foreign travel difficult for him, so I offered, when I got the chance, to get myself over there and bring back some photos.
The chance came in 2001 as September saw some cold and stormy mountain weather in the Alps, and in the Saastal with a week to go I gave up and headed south, walking up the Furggtälli and over the Antronapass (around the time, though I only heard about it two days later, that the planes were slamming into the WTC) and down into the chunk of Italy which separates the Valais from the Ticino, bliss to get out of that bitter north wind. Then down to Domodossola and a packed and sweltering Centovalli train to Locarno, another train to Bellinzona, and a bus to Biasca, the small town at the foot of the Val Blenio.
Read MoreIn the course of work I'd got to know Raymond Ferrari who was a retired fireman (what he didn't tell me, and I only learned as a result of last year's commemoration, is that early in his career he had been lucky to survive the terrible Cheapside disaster). Around that time I was in the habit of spending 2 or 3 late summer weeks in the Swiss Alps, seeing what I could get up, and when I told him this he mentioned that his grandfather had come to Glasgow from Switzerland around the time of the Great War, having been born in the village of Ludiano in the Val Blenio, in the Italian-speaking canton Ticino. Raymond had a hankering to see where his ancestors had lived but domestic circumstances made foreign travel difficult for him, so I offered, when I got the chance, to get myself over there and bring back some photos.
The chance came in 2001 as September saw some cold and stormy mountain weather in the Alps, and in the Saastal with a week to go I gave up and headed south, walking up the Furggtälli and over the Antronapass (around the time, though I only heard about it two days later, that the planes were slamming into the WTC) and down into the chunk of Italy which separates the Valais from the Ticino, bliss to get out of that bitter north wind. Then down to Domodossola and a packed and sweltering Centovalli train to Locarno, another train to Bellinzona, and a bus to Biasca, the small town at the foot of the Val Blenio.
