Country 7: Italy: Cross Border Special: Lake Maggiore

My first trip to Italy was a day excursion from Switzerland where I was taken on holiday when I was 12. What do I remember of that first Italian visit?

• I remember a day trip from Switzerland.
• I remember a lake.
• I remember a Palace on an island in the lake.
• I remember the tour guide in the Palace talking about Princes Diana having once been there.
• I remember the photo of him and her together.
• I remember a white peacock.
• I remember lots of sea shells in a room.
• I remember a ridiculous claim that two mirrors facing each other held the World Record for having the most number of reflections because they were so perfectly aligned that you could see yourself 10 times in each mirror. (In the mirrors in the lift of the Reichstag last month, I counted my bald spot reflected 28 times!)
• I remember being hardly able to see myself because the mirrors were so old and grainy.
• I remember the Swiss guard on the train to Italy saying as we crept over the border and stopped... “ I apologise for this unforeseen delay to our journey... but of course we are in Italy now”.
• I remember each shop in the Italian town having four tills, for Italian Lira, Swiss Francs, UK Pounds and US Dollars.
• I remember the waiter being particularly annoyed when we paid in Lira.
• I remember being excited at the thought of being a Lira millionaire for £280.
• I remember £280 still seeming like an impossible amount of money.
• I remember on the journey home claiming that I knew we were back in Switzerland because the colour of the Alps was different... greyer as opposed to the sandier tone in Italy.
• I remember the confident tone of my voice in proclaiming this... The sort of confidence only a 12 year old proto-geologist can possess.
• I remember us then pulling into a railway station which proved we were certainly still in Italy.
• I have not grown up to be a geologist.
• I have not grown out of being a know it all.
• But at least I know I am.
• And I remember I have been to Italy.