Northern Italy Trip September 2015, Part 7: Bergamo, Enclave Campione d’Italia, Lake Como

Northern Italy Travel September 2015
Northern Italy Travel September 2015

Date: September 24, 2015

「Google Timelineによる軌跡」

I’m back from my trip to Germany, so I’ll resume updating here. There are a few more things left to do.

Walking in Bergamo

This morning we went sightseeing in Bergamo where we were staying. After breakfast at the apartment, we checked out. We paid the extra fee for the parking lot and started sightseeing.

ベルガモ市街は、丘の上の旧市街チッタ・アルタ(上の町)と、丘の下の新市街チッタ・バッサ(下の町)からなっております。僕が宿泊していたのは、旧市街チッタ・アルタの方です。新市街にも見どころはあるのですが、クルマで通過する際にざっと街を見たので、歩いてまわるのはこの旧市街側にしました。

まず旧市街の中心ヴェッキア広場へと向かい、その裏にある「サンタ・マリア・マッジョーレ教会」を訪れました。この教会は初期のロマネスク様式(ロンバルディア・ロマネスク様式)に分類されるようです。完成は1521年。

ところでこの教会、外観を見た第一印象は、とても独特で美しく、あまり他では見たことがない、でした。が、実はこれは教会に隣接する「コッレオーニ礼拝堂」だそうです。教会の一部とは別物と考えて良いのでしょうか。なお、礼拝堂内部は撮影禁止でした。

続いて、同じくヴェッキア広場にあるラッジョーネ宮殿の塔に登りました。この塔の入り口でベルガモカードを購入。市内の美術館や公共交通機関(バス、フニクラ)の1日利用券がセットとなったカードです。もちろんこの塔への入場もこのカードで可能です。

We took the elevator to the top of the tower. From there, we could see the vast Lombardy plain as well as the city of Bergamo. Yes, it was a beautiful day.

Even more impressive and beautiful with the Colleoni Chapel and the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore just directly in front of you!

Next, we went to the Donizetti Museum behind the church. But it seemed to be not open. Too bad.

After that, we took a walk around the beautiful old town and finally took the funicular to the hill where you can see the whole of Bergamo’s old town. We were able to use the one-day pass that came with our Bergamo Card.

The old town of Bergamo itself is on a hill, but this hill is even higher than the old town. It was a nice view, but the city seemed a little too far away.

In addition, there was Donizetti’s birthplace near the Hunniclare station on the old town side. I heard that this house was also a museum, but there was no sign of it being open.

This is the end of our sightseeing in Bergamo. It was a very beautiful city. I’m glad I came.

beluga mask

ところで、「beluga mask」という名前のついた曲を、クラシック好きな方なら名前くらいなんとなく聞いたことがあると思われます。「beluga mask」とは、「ベルガモの」または「ベルガモ舞曲」を意味するそうです。

おそらく最も有名なのは、ドビュッシーの「beluga mask組曲」だと思います。ピアノ組曲ですが特に3曲目の「月の光」が有名ですよね。また、同じフランスの作曲家フォーレも「マスクとbeluga mask」という曲を書いています。どちらも、ポール・ヴェルレーヌというフランスの詩人が書いた「艶なる宴」にもとづいて作曲された作品。この詩の舞台となっているのが、このベルガモなのだそうです。

I love Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque and Fauré’s Masque and Bergamasque, and somehow knowing these facts made me want to visit this city.

To the enclave « Campione d’Italia ».

続いて向かったのは、イタリアとスイス国境にあるルガーノ湖畔にある「カンピョーネ・ディターリア」という街。実はここはイタリアの飛び地。

スイスの中にぽっかりとイタリアの街があるのです。スイス領土内にある飛び地ということは、当然ながら一旦イタリア国境を超えてスイス領土内に入らなければいけません。スイスは、現在はシェンゲン協定国なので、入国の際にパスポート等の提示は求められませんが、高速道路から入る場合、[highlight]「ヴィニエット」[/highlight]と呼ばれるステッカーをフロントガラスに貼っていないと、国境警察に停められその場でこのヴィニエットを買わされます。スイス国境付近であればイタリア領内のスタンドでも買うことが可能なので事前に貼っておくことも可能です。

There are several European countries that have introduced this vignette. The representative ones are Switzerland and Austria. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have also introduced it.

ヴィニエット | my lifelog yuu-koma.jp https://www.yuu-koma.jp/?page_id=1546

The disappointing thing about the Swiss vignette is that there is only one type that is valid for one year. This costs 40 euros. In Austria and Czech Republic, there are several kinds of validity, such as 1 week, 1 month and 1 year, and of course the shorter validity is cheaper. However, if you pay 4,000 yen for unlimited high-speed driving, it is much cheaper than in France or Italy, let alone Japan.

Well, I was made to buy such a vignette, but I took the Swiss highway from there for only about 10 minutes. 40 Euros is too expensive for 10 minutes at most… But if you don’t use the highway, you can’t get in unless you take a very long detour & mountain route, so I gave up. Then we got off at the interchange before the Swiss town « Lugano » and aimed at the enclave « Campione d’Italia ». After getting off the train, it took only a few minutes to get there, I think.

At the entrance of the city, there was a kind of gate like this. At any rate, it claimed that this was Italy, but it was unclear where the boundary line was, from which point it was Italy, or rather this city.

To be honest, the only thing in town is the casino, so I didn’t really want to go in there, but I headed there anyway and parked in the lot in front of it. Parking meter type, Euros and Swiss Francs, both seemed to work.

At first, I took a walk around the casino. I heard that many tourists come here from all over the area for the purpose of casino, because the regulations of taxation and casino are loose. I was not interested in gambling, so I only looked at the exterior. Because I did not have much time.

Afterwards, we walked along the lakeside and around the nearby town for a bit. The weather was good and the view was great.

By the way, if you look at the map carefully, you can see that the Swiss territory surrounding Campione d’Italia is not connected to Switzerland by land, although there is one bridge across Lake Lugano.

ということは、この取り囲むスイス領そのものがいわばスイスの飛び地となっているわけです。従って、「カンピョーネ・ディターリア」って実は[highlight]「飛び地の中の飛び地」[/highlight]とも言えるわけです。

ところで、なぜカンピョーネ・ディターリアが飛び地になったのか。中世の頃、この地はミラノのカトリック教会の修道院が保有する領域でした。当時この街や周りを取り囲むスイスは、神聖ローマ帝国内の領土であり、要するにそれぞれの封建領主の持ち分だったわけですが、16世紀にスイスが周辺の村を併合した際に、この修道院は教会の特権を盾にそれを拒否。その結果、スイスの中のミラノの飛び地となりました。そして時間は流れ19世紀のイタリア統一がなされた時にイタリアの領土となりました。こうしてスイスの中にイタリアの飛び地が生まれたというわけです。(※「世界飛び地大全 (角川ソフィア文庫)」より)

In fact, there are several other enclaves like this in Europe, but in Western Europe, they can be roughly explained by the relationship between lords’ shares in the medieval feudal system, religious reasons such as Protestantism or Catholicism, the independence of Switzerland, and the independence of the Netherlands after the War of the Spanish Succession. I can understand the history of these areas to some extent thanks to my choice of world history in high school. If you know world history, traveling suddenly becomes more fun.

World Heritage « Mount Saint-Georges ».

By the way, I heard that there is a World Heritage Site « Mount St. Georges » around here, near Lake Lugano, so I thought I’d go there, but I saw a rumor on the Internet that it’s not so interesting, so I was worried about it, but when I checked the place again, I found that I could see it from this Campione d’Italia I was able to see it from this Campione d’Italia.

It looks like an ordinary green mountain, but in fact, many fossils have been unearthed here from five strata belonging to the Middle Triassic Period (245 million years ago – 230 million years ago), and it has been chosen as a World Heritage site because it is a very valuable place.

In any case, I finished my viewing by looking at the mountain from the lakeside and decided to casually add it to my list of World Heritage sites to visit.

Villa Carlotta » on the shores of Lake Como

Then we head to Lake Como. We actually saw it once when entering Switzerland at high speed. From Campione d’Italia, we cross the bridge to the other side of Lake Lugano, then pass through the city of Lugano and go east along the north side of Lake Lugano.

On the way, we entered Italy again by public road and arrived at Lake Como. It was about one hour from Campione d’Italia.

Lake Como is a lake located along the border between Italy and Switzerland. There are several sightseeing spots and you can see the lake from anywhere, but I chose « Villa Carlotta » in the town of Tremezzo this time. The villa and the view of Lake Como from there are reputed to be beautiful. In addition, it was not allowed to take photos inside.

Carlotta was the daughter of a noble family, and her father bought this villa for her. Unfortunately, Carlotta died when she was still in her twenties.

ちなみに現地へ行って気がついたのですが、このヴィッラ・カルロッタがある街トレメッツォは、イタリアのもっとも美しい村のひとつにも選ばれていました。ここは確かに美しい。

The city of Como is terrible.

It was 4:00 p.m. around here. We have to decide where to stay. We chose the city of Como (that’s the name of the city). in the city. The reason why I came to this city is because I had already booked a hotel for the next day. According to my original plan, I was supposed to come to Como on the last day of my trip, but because of the weather in the Dolomites, I had to move up all my plans by one day, so I decided to stay in Como if it was open, as well as Cortina in the Dolomites, so I wouldn’t have to pay for the cancellation fee.

But the road to Como was very narrow and tough. We drove on the road along the west side of Lake Como, but it was very narrow and there were many cars. However, it was very rewarding to drive. I think this tightness was more than Amalfi Coast.

We finally arrived at Como after such a hard time, but this place was surprisingly rough and awful. It was the most disappointing town in this trip.

Como is beautiful around some of the luxury hotels, but the whole city is kind of dark. The roads are rough, and the bus terminal is also rough. I think it was worse than southern Italian cities or Sicily. Southern Italian cities are bleak, but on the other hand, they have a taste and above all, they have a bright atmosphere.

However, it was almost dusk, so we had no choice but to go to the hotel we had reserved (actually the next day). But to my surprise, the hotel was fully booked and they couldn’t let me stay there that day. So we were told to come back tomorrow. I didn’t want to come back to this town tomorrow, so I tried to negotiate with them saying that I actually made a mistake on the day of reservation, and I couldn’t come tomorrow. But I will tell the owner about this. If you still can’t cancel, I’m sorry, » and she was very polite. The town was not so good, but the people were kind and helpful. (But in the end I couldn’t cancel and had to pay the fee.

We went to Varese, where we decided to stay on short notice, and the nearby restaurant was quite nice.

So I had to look for a hotel in a hurry. Thinking about the next day, I chose Varese, a small town about an hour away from Como, and found a hotel with a good price and good atmosphere on the outskirts of Varese by searching Booking.com. We arrived at our destination at 8:00 p.m., hustling along the highway at dusk and night.

ホテルは外観も中も非常によい質で安心でした。しかし、このホテルにはレストランがありませんでしたので、ダメ元で(なにせ郊外ですから)近くに食べるところはないかとホテルの人に聞いてみたところ、幸いな事に歩いて5分位のところに「メドゥーサ」という評判のレストランがあると教えてくれたので、早速行ってみることにしました。

As we were told by the hotel staff, it takes about 5 minutes to turn the street behind the church. In the dark residential area, I found a restaurant with a little brighter atmosphere than the surrounding area. It seems that this is the restaurant « Medusa ».

It’s a local Italian restaurant, so we ordered dishes that might be related to the local area. The only disappointing thing was that the Milanese risotto was not available. I had no choice but to change it to gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce. Gorgonzola, a synonym for blue cheese, is a specialty of a village in the suburbs of Milan.

ここでは以前も紹介しましたが、牛フィレ肉のステーキが美味しかったです。ソースはガーリック&シャンピニオンソース。なんといってもお肉の柔らかさに感動。

And to top it off, we still had the gorgonzola. It came out in plenty (laughs).

The wine was a decanter of a local white wine. It was the first time for me to drink fizzy white wine since the first day in Courmayeur. It’s not a spumante, but this fizzy white wine is very appetizing once you get used to it. It’s one I’d like to focus on in the future.

I was anxious because the restaurant was located in an empty residential area in the suburbs, but when I tried the food, all the dishes and wine were delicious and I was very satisfied. After finishing the meal, we returned to the hotel following the dark road.

ちなみに後で知り合いに指摘されて気がついたのですが、「メドゥーサ」という名前のレストランで「ゴルゴン」ゾーラを食べるなんて、なんだか石化されそうな組み合わせでしたね(笑)。

In any case, it was a tumultuous day with a mixture of good things and disappointments, but in the end, the hotel we decided on in a hurry and the restaurant that was recommended to us were quite good and we were able to finish it off nicely.

翌日は最終日。パヴィアという修道院からミラノに行こうと思います。

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