clearing the docket (11. 658)

Along the expected ideological lines, the US supreme court has ruled that the president, past, present and future, are entitled to the presumption of immunity from prosecution for any official acts—but not in an unofficial capacity, however that is defined. 

Refusing to rule on what constitutes what falls within the high office holder‘s scope of practise and remanding that judgment to a lower court—such as stoking insurrection or ordering a vendetta on political rivals—guarantees that no further criminal proceedings will be carried out against candidate Trump prior to the election and nullifies potential consequences as a reinstated individual can halt and reverse the proceedings. The experiment become vanity project that was American democracy seems to have been quickly regressed from a republic to an absolute monarchy and repressive theocracy with precious few transition points.

castelli di bellinzona (11. 657)

Returning to Ticino, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage site, the ensemble of fortifications, of the cantonal capital and strategically important location occupied and defended since Neolithic times as the place where several Swiss rivers converge and near the Alpine passes of San Bernardino, San Gottardo and Lukmanier, and maintaining hold of Bellinzona meant control of traffic and trade between northern Europe and the Mediterranean. 

 

It was not however until the reign of Augustus in the first century that a stronghold was built on the rocky outcropping in the middle of the city, and while the garrison was neglected for several hundred years, Castelgrande was expanded into its present form as the defence of Helvetia under Diocletian and Constantine.  Under Frankish rule in the 700s, the second castle, Montebello, was constructed as a chain of watchtowers and as part of expansionist

ambitions of the Duchy of Milan, the third and highest, Sasso Corbaro, was added in the sixteen century with reinforcement on the lower existing structures, and is now a symbol of Swiss unity and identity.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a venerable Viennese newspaper folds (with synchronoptica)

six years ago: negotium and otium

seven years ago: an AI names cats, moss walls, the Tour de Trump plus the Hong Kong transfer of sovereignty (1997)

eight years ago: on listicles plus the fantastic illustrations of François Schuiten

nine years ago: West Germany’s NATO accession (1955), grail candidates plus assorted links to enjoy

sacro monte di varese (11. 656)

One of nine UNESCO designated sites, the holy mountains of Lombardi and Piedmont were came into their present form after the 1571 Battle of Lepanto, in gratitude for the decisive maritime victory for the Holy League over the Ottoman Empire, a mediative pilgrimage to the summit and sanctuary that showcases religious artistic and architectural skill of the Duchy of Milan while in harmony with the natural landscape. 

The sacred location above the provincial capital has a series of fourteen chapels decorated with polychromatic figures illustrating not the usual stations of the cross but with each triplet representing one of the joyful, sorrowful and glorious Mysteries of the rosary as one ascends the mountain. 

At the top is the cloister—a community of the order of the Romite Ambrosiane—a sisterhood who promoted public conveniences and sanitation, among other good works, a Marian church and a small village called Santa Maria del Monte originally built to accommodate pilgrims and church staff but now with a few dining establishments and hotels.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: the US supreme court strikes down Biden’s student loan amnesty (with synchronoptica) plus Night of the Long Knives (1934)

seven year ago: more telephone trivia, German marriage equality plus assorted links worth revisiting

eight years ago: Mid-Century Modern library posters, a robot lawyer, the place of English in the EU post-Brexit plus mobile beach-changing rooms

nine years ago: the Greek drachma, more links to enjoy plus more independence, secessionist movements

ten years ago: electromagnet forensics plus essential oils

il rocco di caldè (11.655)

Visiting the comune of between Luino and Laveno Castleveccana and took a hike through the frazione of Caldè to the Rocco, a promontory that first hosted a defensive castello in the early tenth century but was breached during the campaigns of Otto I against Berengar II. 

We first passed the line processing furnaces in a rather venerable industrial park, in operation from 1280 to 1970 these kilns made quicklime for mortar, pottery and plaster and for use in agriculture by superheating limestone, the techniques superannuated by the rise of cheap petroleum. The design of the furnaces and technique were virtually unchanged since the Middle Ages. 

We next came to the a sixteenth century church dedicated to Saint Veronica that was originally a chapel and shelter for farm workers and shepherds in service of a second fortification built on the Rocco, destroyed by the Swiss in 1513 during rivalries between the French and the Holy Roman Empire and allies, the sanctuary being the only part not in complete ruins and overtaken by nature.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Dancing in the Streets (with synchronoptica), an animatronic facelift, We Didn’t Start the Fire updated plus US supreme court ends affirmative action

seven years ago: the parable of the second arrow, rolling back regulations on pesticide use in the US, Trump goes to Paris plus the US united in quackery

eight years ago: weaponising toxic-masculinity, more on ISOTYPEs plus a Golden Mean pocket scope

nine years ago: a word for relating to pigeons plus assorted links worth revisiting

ten years ago: social engineering, an optical muezzin plus placebos and nocebos

isola boromee (11. 654)

Though island-hopping was not as logistically easy as we thought—an all day commitment and much of the archipelago did not allow dogs, we nonetheless enjoyed our excursion via ferry to the Lago Maggiore island group in the bay of Stresa.  

One of a number of merchant and banking dynasties to carry the title Buon Romei—trustworthy Romans, the House that began acquiring the properties in the mid-fifteenth century were eventually ennobled and still to this day retain much of their holdings. Isola Bella contains a summer palace and Isola Madre has an English-style botanical garden. Isola Superiore (dei Pescatori, the Island of the Fishermen) where we disembarked, is the only one with a permanent—albeit a small one and far outnumbered by the staff of the many restaurants—and never owned by the House Borromeo.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links to revisit (with synchronoptica) plus The Wizard of Oz x Pink Floyd

seven years ago: Grenfell Tower, colonial Americans’ expanding settlements plus Germany legalises same-sex marriage

eight years ago: biometric passwords plus Invisibilia returns

nine years ago: more on the Right of Panorama plus a trip to the Wetterau

ten years ago: obscure sorrows plus pataphysics and Alfred Jarre

ponte dei salti (11. 653)

Driving back through Ticino near Locarno, we headed through the Verzasca valley, punctuated with a monumental reservoir, Lago di Vogorno. Completed in the mid-1960s by the same civil engineer, Giovanni Lombardi, who designed the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the dam makes a cameo in the 1995 film Goldeneye, with James Bond parachuting from the wall. No bungee jumping was on offer today, however.

We went on towards Lavertezzo with the arched pedestrian crossing, built originally in the 1700s for donkeys bearing burdens, over the turquoise river. 

The route was dotted with villages with traditional slate and granite houses. The rapids are treacherous but the shallows in this spot with bathers made it seem like a prehistoric water park from The Flintstones.

synchronoptica

one year ago: paronomasia (with synchronoptica) plus a critique of the Latin alphabet

seven years ago: America’s retaliatory strike on Syria, Salvador Dalí exhumed plus the TSA empowered to check one’s reading material

eight years ago: US supreme court upholds Trump’s travel ban plus the history of America’s Pledge of Allegiance

eleven years ago: Snowden granted asylum 

twelve years ago: drone warfare 

carmine superiore (11. 652)

Traveling back to Luina—which inherited market privileges from Maccagno—but not quite the showcase of local food and craft week expected, we returned to Laveno to take a ferry ride to the Piedmontese side on the lake at the port of Intra by Verbania and between the stretch of coast known as the Cannero Riveria—with same Mediterranean flair—and city of Cannobio, we stopped to explore an abandoned village—the lower settlement named inferiore though still populated. 

Though visible from the campground perched midway up the mountain and only about a kilometer away, was quite a journey to get to the well-preserved medieval ghost town, with a hike through the woods and cascades for the final ascent, Carmine Supreiore was originally built as an escape castle and observation post for Carmine below and the harbor of Cannobio, with a commanding view of the lake and Lombard mountains. 

This better-defended retreat saw its significance wane and was depopulated after the First World War, but subsistence farmers and vintners had the foresight to ensure that it did not fall into complete ruin and had a series of caretakers. Dominated by a church from the thirteen hundreds dedicated to St Gotthard, invoked, among other thing, for relief gout and still sees regular pilgrimages from sufferers. Afterwards we went to Cannobio, a pre-Roman city that rebelled against fascism by establishing the independent Republic of Ossola, with its extensive lakefront piazza before heading back the long way around through Switzerland.

 synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronoptica) plus the Pied Piper of Hamlin

seven years ago: low-Earth orbit being crowded out, mobile check-up units, more links to enjoy plus an IBM featurette

eight years ago: a camera carriage frame for car morphing, secessionist groups plus a potential UK constitutional crisis

nine years ago: more links to enjoy

ten years ago: the Wicked-isation of classic fairy-tales