Ticino's Act of Mediation 1803

Heaven forbid - definitely no, otherwise Ticino might have become a part of Italy.

Emperor of France and (lateron also) King of Italy, Napoléon Bonaparte, was smart enough to issue the “Acte de Médiation” on February 19th, 1803 which merged the Canton Bellinzona and Canton Lugano into the new Canton Ticino and followed the people’s wish of the «Liberi e Svizzeri» movement.

This political victory stopped the instability of the Ticino from spearding into his emerging empire (Italy) or weakening Napoléons army.

This “Act of Mediation”, though shortlived until 1815 only, was an transition document to today’s Swiss confederation by replacing the predeceeding Helvetic Republic. The French troops occupied the Ticino oncemore again from 1810 but got booted out, once and for good, in 1813.

Those were the days, wild and savage indeed!

Congratulations to Frederike, Felix & Simone, Greth, Pascal, Sepp and Curdin who all knew the correct answer. A la salute!

A glass of house wine (five to choose from) or a local beer goes to Greth, Simone, Curdin, Felix, Rolf and Sepp - a la Salute!

The pictoral maze; actually a section of  a tunnel boring machine’s drilling head. These  jumbos munching their way through Swiss Alp rocks on their way to ……. Ticino.

The first tunnel opened 1882 and was “only” 15 kms long. When the Northern and the Southern engineering teams met half-way in the midst of the rock they were only 33 cms horizontally and 5 cms vertically off the blue print; a fantastic achievement in the days of no electricity, GPS, or computer-guided satellites. The picture to the left shows the full size of the drilling head (see the worker in the lower right corner). The picture right/below shows what happens, if the drilling head breaks through the last centimetres. Right-Click in the pictures for opening blow-ups in new windows. Today, with all those gizmos and gadgets it is still very hard work but the tunnel boys today are off the blue prints by millimetres!

If you need to know more then catch up with Mario or Martin - both regulars at our VespaBar - during their vacation in Thailand. You then can drill all sorts of questions as Martin maintains the jumbo drillers in Hong Kong (where they extend the subway) while Mario drills himself a private section of a tunnel around Biel/Switzerland as a part of the A5’s integrated part of the Swiss National Highways system. .

Corrects answers came in from Simone, zwei Ruedis, Fredi, Flüeme, em Maa vom Taal, Bernhard, Pascal and Sugi;  the choice of any dish from our Pizze menu is theirs; Congratulations!

What does this amazing patchwork to your right represent?

Answer until July 31st, 2010 latest wins a dish from our Pizze menu.

These special taxis roam only ….. the island of Capri. Latter gave its name to the salad - consisting of buffalo milk mozzarella (white), fresh tomatoes (red) and basil (green) with splashes of cold pressed virgin olive oil and these are …….  the national colours of Bella Italia.

Frederike, Suzie,Peter & Rolf, apart from two other correct answers (where we have the email address only), have won themselves a Lasagna of their choice which they can enjoy until August 15th,2010 latest. Someone answered “Blue Grotto”; well, we still work on the “Blue Grotto Soup” but this imaginative answer wins a Lasagne too.

Ever heard of Gorgonoci (pronounced “Gorgo Not She”)? Never mind, we also had to look it up!

In searching for new menues we found a sauce combination which definitely comes straight from heaven. It is a lucullic combination of a mild gorgonzola cheese from Italy with pestled walnuts. We are sure, that you share our enthusiasm over this godly creation.

We also managed to put our hands on some unbeatable Iberian offers. A Rioja Alta; Señorío de P. Peciña Reserva 2001; this Rioja is a Spanish dream originating from the days when the Peseta still ruled the Reino de España.

Another good choice is the palate-pleasing, medium bodied Campo Nuevo 2007 at THB 890/bottle or THB 190/glass. The Spanish Tinto answer to the Italian Rosso - ¡Salud!

The Octopus Paul, in residence in a German seawater aquarium world, has spoken and the Spaniards are head over heels about their win - his selección of Spain made him definitely the most popular Pulpo on the planet. He will have a happy, long life and will get a permanent fixture in a marble or solid gold version at the mother of all Museo del Fútbol in Madrid or Barcelona or somewhere.

The Spanish, jubilant over their achievement, also hissed their new flag all over the planet which looks something like this.

The Thais were a little late with their attempt, whereby Panda cub Lin Ping, visiting from China, at Chiang Mai Zoo yesterday chose to drink three times milk from a container with milk in the Spanish container only. Bad voices have it that the Dutch container was empty/ied before - of course a completely false accusation!