By a landslide

My 24 year old daughter Denise landed here today, along with her boyfriend Jared Grogan and their friend Heidi Flotts.

They were in pretty good shape and were curious about nearby Switzerland, so we drove over to beautiful Lago Maggiore, up its Eastern shore to Luino, then over toward Lugano. We were driving down a narrow road along the Tresa river which forms the border with Switzerland, when we came across a sign that said:

Road Interrupted by Landslide

Now, this was not a new sign. It was somewhat rusty, and I had the feeling that it had neither been posted nor moved lately. By backtracking less than a km we could cross the Swiss border and proceed along the other side of the same river to Lugano.

I have a hunch that there really was a landslide on the Italian side some years ago, and some intelligent person said: "What's the hurry? If they want to get by bad enough let them go on the Swiss side."

Many Italians commute daily to Switzerland to work. Today in a place in gorgeous Lugano the waiter, from Varese province, who drives down this very road - on the Swiss side of course - leaned over and said "You do know the food's better in Italy, don't you?"