As I had written a few months ago, one of the (few) joys attached to doing a Ph.D. is the chance to participate in international conferences. I reckon I am quite lucky to be given the opportunity to attend to yet another of such conferences and present some of my works, too. This particular conference, from an acadamic point of view, promised to be more interesting than previous ones since rather than being very broad in its contents and deal with composite materials in general, it was entirely devoted to protective structures and thus, presumably, would be more within my field of interest. Also, the venue sounded quite interesting: Switzerland, a country I had never been to. Logistically, it proved to be more stressful: it coincided with yet another conference (in South Korea) and thus had to choose between the 2 (or rather, my supervisor chose for me) and it also was to be held during the week just after my wife's birthday and during the week when her M.Sc. thesis was due. Although I am virtually helpless in the latter, for she has to do her own work, I thought I might at least offer some moral support, but alas, on the 28th of August I left London to Lugano and embark on Protect 2011.
The flight was not direct and started off at London City Airport. I had never been to the latter and the journey to the far east of London on the DLR proved to be interesting. Once on board the Swiss air plane, my suspicions as to how this flight will be started to materialise. I recalled the first non-direct flight I did in the past (to Stuttgart), where the plane was a tiny, propellored one. This time, the London-Zurich flight was a "normal" plane, but with 2 rows of 3 and 2 people, rather than the usual 3 and 3. I had a good window seat in the 2 person row and the flight was smooth. Once at Zurich, I was amazed at the huge number of people there and the somewhat confused departure lounge. I only hoped that my suitcase would not get misplaced and put my mind at rest when I saw it being loaded on the plane once on the runway. My peace of mind disappeared when I realised that the plane was one of those damn noisy propellor ones and this was even smaller: 1 and 2 person rows! Again, I had a window single seat and, thankfully, the journey was less than 45 minutes long. And thus I landed in Lugano and got into an airport the size of a large house.
I was amazed to find out that my impression of Switzerland was totally wrong. I had this image of snow and ice and cold Alpine conditions, but I found a 28 degree sunny Lugano waiting for me. It was also very comforting to note that everything and everyone used Italian in this little appendix of Helvetica which is very much Mediterranean in its attitude, albeit slightly more organised and clean than the average Italian city. Undoubtedly the German-Swiss influence. A 15 minute journey took me to the hotel literally at the water's edge and with a magnificent view of Lake Lugano and the 2 quasi symmetrical mountains towering over it: Bre and San Salvatore.
I was rather hungry at that point and decided to go and fetch some quick dinner. The first obvious choice was unfortunately Burger King, only to find that a normal meal there cost almost 14 Swiss Francs (when I had bought Francs at 1 CHF for £0.85). Unbelievable! I had been warned that Switzerland was rather expensive, but even such a "basic" foodstuff was almost double what it is in an average European city! I recalled that infamous slogan from the 2003 E.U. campaign back in Malta, when that sorry man had promoted the idea of turning Malta into a Mediterranean Switzerland. Did that mean doubling the cost of living, or more? If so, then what a relief that that man's ideas never materialised...
The following day was a kick off for the work part of the trip: a technical tour. The venue was actually in Italy and thus a coach took the smallish congregation of participants to Galbiate in Italy. No checks whatsoever were done at the border, in typical Italian style. The venue proved to be quite picturesque and the lunch, well, impeccable, in yet again true Italian style. The prosecco in particular was very tasty. After a longish first day, we travelled back to Switzerland and had a good night's sleep, but only after an ice-breaking cocktail evening, where I savoured some more great local food. And wine, of course.
The next day was busy, spent mostly at the conference venue. En route from the hotel, I saw virtually all of Lugano and continued to amaze myself at how expensive everything is. I also noticed that there were a lot of pharmacies, probably the highest number of pharmacies per capita in the world and concluded that either the Swiss get sick very often or pharmaceuticals are the only cheap thing in this place. That evening, I headed to Lugano station and after a long tour trying to find how the ticket purchasing system worked, I got train tickets for Milan. More on that later. I realised how much organised the Brits are, with 1000 signs every 5m, announcements every 5 minutes and everything so accessible and fool-proof. I guess the Italianite influence is far too strong in this part of Switzerland. I prepared myself for my presentation due on the next day, though such an activity did not require much adrenaline anymore.
Indeed, the presentation was very smooth and had only 2 questions from the chairman at the end. After the day's sessions, I decided to do some proper Luganese sightseeing. I walked west along the lake's edge, encountered one of Mario Botta's typical brick buildings and then boarded the funicular which led me to the top of Mount San Salvatore. As far as I remember, I had never been up such a high mountain (912m, to be precise) and, indeed, never up such a high anything (the Eiffel Tower is a mere 300m compared to the threefold height of this rocky beast). Once at the summit, after my ears popped a few times and the temperature was slightly fresher and more pleasant, I was left with a vast 360-degree panorama of pure Alpine beauty laid out like a capet below me. Absolute heaven. So was the chilled beer I had after touring the mountain-top chapel and some of the rugged paths snaking around the top.
Thursday was then the final day of the conference and the highlight of the day was undoubtedly the conference dinner that evening. Once again, we travelled to Italy, this time to Villa Erba close to Como and enjoyed an amazing 4 course meal in a superb setting. Back to Lugano, I bid farewell to the new acquintances I had made and retired immediately to recharge myself for the trip that awaited the next day.
Surprise, surprise, I was going to Italy, again. In less than a week, I would have gone to Italy 3 times, that is more than the 2 times I have been in the previous 27 years! However, I had never been to Milan and, being this close to the Lombardia region, I decided to pay a visit to the northern capital of Italy. I was very sorry to find out that, even having checked as early as July, there were no tickets available to view Leonardo's "The Last Supper" in the famous Milanese convent, but soon filled my itenerary with numerous substitutes which filled the whole day: the utterly Fascist Stazione Milano Centrale, the sleek Pirelli Tower of Nervi, the magnificent Duomo, the posh Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, the famed Teatro della Scala, my Inter's beloved Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, the hidden gem that is Pinacoteca Brera and the awesome Castello Sforzesco.
I imagined the Centrale station to be a large-scale version of the old Valletta City Gate, only a bit more adorned and monumental. With the quasi operatic music in the background, I was almost expecting some Mussolini wannabe to start making an impromptu speech in the ticket hall. I got myself a day ticket for the metro and then paid tribute to the engineering marvel that is Nervi's Pirelli Tower. The weather was not attractive: grey skies and terribly hot and humid conditions. I took the metro and landed at the foot of the Duomo. What an impressive facade: well-conserved Gothic fantasy. The interior was equally impressive, although the quasi-industrial white lighting was somewhat disappointing. I headed to the Scala theatre via the Galleria building and did not fail to do some window shopping. The Scala was closed and I wondered what splendour was hiding behind that modest facade.
I had a quick lunch and then headed off to the west in the San Siro area of Milan, precisely to visit Inter's (well, and AC Milan's) Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. I decided to walk up the road to the stadium and this was a serendipitious choice: I saw a huge array of artwork by graffiti artists and many of them at work, creating wonderful improvised works of art in this Camden-like part of Milan. Once at the Meazza, I was amazed by the structure's dimensions. So much different seeing the real thing than just on TV! I got my ticket and made my way to the museum and then the stadium tour, including the teams' changing rooms! Quite a memorable experience...
After San Siro, it was time for some more cultural activities and headed to the Brera Gallery. I knew the "stars" of the place - Hayez's "The Kiss", Caravaggio's "Meal at Emmaus" and Raphael's "Marriage of the Virgin", among others - but I was also delighted to find 2 works by Mattia Preti which he actually undertook whilst in Malta! A well-spent two hours later, I almost literally ran to the ancient Milan stronghold of Castello Sforzesco, hoping it would still be open. It was, but the museums therein were not, and thus did not manage to have a look at Michelangelo's last piece of work, the Rondanini Pieta'. Alas, visiting the mighty citadel was worthwhile nevertheless. I forgot to mention that by the time I was leaving the Meazza, the sky had cleared to a more decent blue and thus I went back to Piazza del Duomo and took a few "better" pictures before it was time to return to the Centrale and northbound to Lugano. What a great day!
My final day in the Swiss land was greeted by a grey sky, albeit warm and somewhat uncomfortably humid. I did manage a quick stroll along the pedestrianised quarters of Via Nassa, of course not intending to buy anything from that devilish shopping quarter and only consumed my remaining Franc coins on water and a snack. I finished off my current read (Archer's "As the crow flies"), which kept me almost off my seat more than the turbulent flight from Lugano to Zurich. The association with Heathrow meant an inevitable delay and the journey back to London finally came to an end in the evening. Thankfully, home is now only a few minutes on the Heathrow Express and thus concluded my Protect 2011 experience.
My impression of the Swiss? I would say the landscape is impeccable and the culture somewhat weird, being a complex interbreed of French, German and Italian (though I mostly savoured only the latter). My view of Milan was not as promising as I thought the Italian capital of the north would be; a few smelly and almost run-down areas did not fail to catch my attention, but the sights were definitely worth travelling to, although I must re-iterate that I wished I had been to see Leonardo's cenacolo fresco. A good excuse to visit Milian another time, perhaps!
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