h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I often find that my travel memories consists of memories of tastes.

As a part of my executive secretarial education, I was in the Italian speaking 'canton' Ticino/Tessin (since the people there are more likely to speak 'proper' German).

Thanks to being more or less surrounded by the Alps, Ascona has a climate as if it were actually located several hundred miles further south.

So it was nothing unusual about us students actually being able to seat ourselves on the outdoor terrace of one of the many restaurants facing Lago Maggiore (in those days, you'd have to bring your passport if taking the ferry across, because the other side of the lake was Italy - yes, that close).

And I had

Lasagne in Forno Fatte al Casa

which loosely translates as 'home made lasagna in ovenware'

And what was placed in front of me was a round, cheramical bowl, with the top of the lasagna still bubbling with heat.

I had to wait for it to cool down a bit before I could taste it - but the very first mouthful exploded with tastes in my mouth, making me oblivious to everything around me. It was cheesy, it was creamy, it was all you'd expect from a lasagna - and also so much more!

Add to that the snow-covered mountain tops surrounding the mirror of the lake, the sun shining, the birds singing...

Hang on, I think I have a photo somewhere...

Ah yes, Ascona seen from the see - I think the restaurant might have been the yellow building pretty far to the left - if you ever happen to be in that part of the world...

http://hem.passagen.se/kristina.r/ascona.jpg

I love that part of the world. Because Lago Maggiore is in such a narrow valley, inaccessible to large crowds and building machinery, it seems to have stopped in the 1930's. Which made me feel like I was in the film "Tea with Moussolini". This atmosphere was enhanced by my mother waxing lyrical about her school trip there (coincidentally, also in the 1930's, her being born in 1919), and showing me her photo album of the school trip.

Ascona we stopped for ice cream - also an unforgettable taste.

Odd and completely worthless piece of info:

The first time I took my mother to Ascona (after my father had died, and I felt I had to get my mother to do *something other than sit at home grieving) I took her to my favourite InterRail places (and yes, traveling by rail and staying in youth hostels, and she never ever complained, even once).

And when we arrived at the railway station in Ascona, we both took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and - simultanously - said out loud

'Aaah, it feels good to be back home!'

Odd that, considering none of us (as far as either of us know) have any connections with Austria.

Sorry, that should have been the railway station in Locarno, the nearest major city - Ascona doesnt' have a railway station, nor much else due it's rather isolated location, as TC already pointed out.

We've been discussing the sentence back and forth, my mother and I and, while we usually don't express ourselves alike at all, there might be influences from my up-bringing, certainly.

But yet, to feel the same way, at the very same moment - it was odd, decidely odd.

But Ti, you *are* odd... (and that by the way, was a compliment!)

Sort of like C and I looking at each other after a few hours in Tuscany and declaring semi-simultaneously that we could live there...

Santra, your daughter isn't the only one to consider *you odd - in a good way, of course

Hmmm... soul connection?

As an explanation for thinking (or saying) the same thing simultaneously...