Cannobio

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Geo: 46.1445, 8.72654

It was slightly brighter in the morning, but still close to rain. So, with Nonno and Nonna, we went to explore Cannobio, the first town across the Italian border. It's still a buzz to drive to another country, even though the border police don't even stop the cars.

Cannobio is a very pretty town, with a lovely esplanade and nice shops. It is typical of this region, with lots of lovely pastel coloured buildings, and all the spring flowers to decorate them. We wandered around, looking at an interesting brass shop (my mum would have bought the whole shop!) and a lovely little church, where the painting of the crucified Christ apparently bled real drops of blood in the 15th century. It was nice to just wander, and the weather held all the time that we were exploring the town. The kids were fascinated as we watched all the Italian children coming out of school for lunchtime (they wear a smock over normal clothes, instead of a uniform), being met by their mums and being walked home for lunch, only to return to school 90 minutes later for the balance of the school day. Imagine if we had to go through the whole procedure of collection and dropoff TWICE in one day at St Ignatius!

We then went to a nice pizzeria for lunch, which was fortunate, as it started to rain. Things do seem so much cheaper in Italy than in Switzerland, but we have to remember that the Euro is worth more than an Aussie dollar (whereas the swiss franc is exactly equal to an AUD$). It was a nice, relaxing way to spend a morning.

In the afternoon, we met Martina, Andreas and Daniel, as well as Sandra, William and Jasmine, and went to the Locarno Lido swimming pool, which is an indoor swimming complex with a number of waterslides. We had a few problems – there was a ridiculously complex system for dressing and undressing, and the tokens to allow us on the slides didn't work (luckily Steven's young nephews showed us how to avoid the barrier and slide without the token!) Not surprisingly, Aussie kids prove themselves as good swimmers. Absolute highlights were Tom's face when he came down the slide for the first time (these things used to scare him when he was little, but since going up the Eiffel Tower, all other heights are nothing!) and swimming in an outdoor hot pool, with the stinging cold rain pounding on our faces and shoulders! I loved it – Steven was less convinced. The kids also enjoyed the swimming pool, which was 3.8m deep – they both dived right down to the bottom. We'll have to go to Chandler pool, and also Wet and Wild this summer – though I don't know if we can replicate the hot & cold outdoor swimming experience in Queensland!

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