The former independent Lombard commune now merged with other municipalities along the lake, the town where we are staying. Elevated during the tenth century by Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great as the immediate fiefdom of the Four Valleys for hospitality demonstrated during the Kaiser’s Italian campaign against his cousin Berengar II as king of Italy with a charter to hold a market and mint coins of the realm.
The town’s importance waned once grain exports were limited and the town had to give up its autonomy to the counts of Borromeo—of insular fame. We travelled up the mountain overlooking the port first from the village of Agra with numerous Belvedere affording a panoramic view of Lago Maggiore after a nice hike through the woods and then from above Maccagno’s old port abutting a cliff face and caverns for exploring.
synchronoptica
one year ago: resistance fighter Willem Arondéus (with synchronoptica), the Wagner mutiny plus the last Western Roman emperor
seven years ago: television cameras banned from White House press conferences, the Queen signals her displeasure, plus fact-checking the Trump campaign
eight years ago: populism in the US and UK, subterranean Singapore plus Greenland leaves the EU (1982)
nine years ago: assorted links to revisit, reconciling ancient philosophy with church doctrine plus a chimeric lamb
ten years ago: the importance of boredom, the vocabulary of migration plus bootstraps and bitcoin