People who see my music collection often comment on the strange range of genres. Not to mention some of the very weird songs that I have. "My boomerang won't come back", and "Ernie, the fastest milkman in the West", are not songs that you would find in many people's collections. I guess I can be classified as a bit of a hoarder. And so, throughout my life, when people introduced me to new music, I took note. And if I liked it, it sort of became like a fridge magnet in my mind. Something that subconsciously stays on the top of the memory stack, to ensure that it gets retrieved easily.
My all-time favourite musical is Chess. I was introduced to it by a good friend that used to work with me, and I just loved having the opportunity to see it performed in a small theater in Camps Bay recently. And for those of you that have not heard of this musical - if you know the song "One Night in Bangkok", then you can at least say that you know one song from the musical.
Chess starts off with a..... well, a Chess tournament (well - it is pretty obvious, isn't it?!) in Merano - a town in Southern Tyrol. I strangely never really took note of where Merano actually is, and was quite surprised to find that it is actually in Italy. And even better - it's near the Stelvio Pass. And having children who are all Top Gear fans, and with the lads from Top Gear raving so much about the Stelvio Pass, it only seemed right for us to try and fit this into our trip.
So, from Aosto, we have to somehow find our way across the Northern parts of Italy, via the Stelvio Pass, to spend some time in Merano (where else?). It took a while to figure out what the best route would be. Ultimately, we settled for a day or two around the lakes near Milan, and I managed to find a rather cute guesthouse in Stresa, on Lake Maggiore. It seems to have a view of Isola Bella, an island on the lake. When I told the owner that we were so looking forward to spending time in her guesthouse, her response was: "grazie! here however is very simple is just a house......." :)
http://www.lasorgente.biz/
The drive from Stresa to Merano seems a bit far to be doing in one day. Especially seeing that there are more than just the Stelvio pass to contend with. And while the passes are probably what I look forward to the most, I certainly did not want to be caught on one of these passes in the dark. So we decided to break the trip up, and found a guesthouse in what I think is just the most beautiful little village nestled in a valley between the mountains. Ponte di Legno.
http://www.pontedilegnobeb.com/english/yuribeb.html
And then, it's the Stelvio Pass, and Merano. It took a while for me to be able to book accommodation in Merano. All the websites are actually in German. And people seem to have way better things to do than answering e-mails. And I specifically did not want accommodation in one of the bigger ski resorts. Eventually I managed to secure a booking. But for this I had to use my best school German, and a little help from our trusted friend Google Translate. (and you can image that, with all the music that I have stored in that top-of-the-stack memory over the years, the school German is not all that retrievable anymore!) These Germans seem to have such a great time up in the North of Italy, that they don't even bother to speak Italian, let alone English!
http://www.schneeburghof.com/
So - with two days to go, and just when I was thinking that I was winning with all the Must-Do stuff, I've just been hit by another curveball. Best I find a bat quickly.
O light the heart
That lingers in Merano
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