Sunday, April 7th, Tirano, Italy

Greetings!

OAT chose Tirano as our home for the next three days for a variety of reasons.  First, it is the terminus of the picturesque Tirano-Sankt Moritz railway line (Bernina Railway).  Unfortunately, a landslide took out a section of the line between here and where we were going in a few days.  We're going to use a small bus instead.

Second, just up the mountain from it is the hamlet of Borgo Baruffini, which will host us for what OAT calls "A Day in the Life".  This feature of every tour is our opportunity to better understand the lives of residents of these hardworking farms on the mountain hillside.  

We started with a walk through the village with Fluvio, a newcomer who thirty years ago decided to fall in love with the place (and a girl), and who has become the President of the community development organization and theater company.   A tour guide could do no better to explain the changes the hamlet has seen over past six hundred years, including the handmade wooden signs crafted by a lifelong resident whose retirement significantly upgraded the facades and identification of the neighborhoods.

The third reason it was chosen was the willingness of the hamlet to engage us in the preparation of a luncheon meal calling on our research, talent, and finally our musical abilities to create a feast long remembered.

While we waited for the buckwheat pasta (known as pizzocheri) to become ready, we met and were regaled with stories of an 84-year old resident's  tobacco and coffee smuggling days as a young woman carrying this contraband over the mountain behind the hamlet to Switzerland.  Celeste allowed she'd recently hiked up the same distance two years ago in two hours, and even our young guides were astonished at her agility.

Allowed access to her wine cellar, to fill eight bottles of local wine from her 200 year-old barrels, we imagined her participation in a historical outlaw movement requiring rugged mountain climbing to effect cross-country trading to escape high tariffs.  Our guides attributed the reduction in population in the hamlet over the last hundred years partly to the parity achieved over the same time between the Euro and the Swiss Franc.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Sunday, April 7th, Tirano, Italy.