Locarno log (6)

After the excitement of the past few days, we decided to take Saturday at a much more leisurely pace. As noted elsewhere, I discovered how to connect to the Internet, so I spent an hour sitting on the stand of a statue in the Piazza, uploading blogs and doing a little work. My wife did a round of the stalls which comprised the Locarno market. Once we had finished in the Piazza, we returned to the hotel via the supermarket where we bought supplies. 

Then off once again to downtown Locarno in order to take the bus to Ascona, a village very close to Locarno. This is supposed to be an artists' village but we saw very little evidence of this. On the other hand, we saw what was very similar to a British south coast holiday town: the lake, a wide promenade, restaurants and a miniature train which makes a circuit of Ascona every hour. We rode on the train and had a very good view of the town, so good that we needn't bother investigating on our own. After the train ride, we had some delicious gelati and sat on the lake front, enjoying the view and the good weather. This is what holidays are made of! 

We then caught the bus back to Locarno, getting off at an earlier stop which was only minutes from our hotel. My wife rested whereas I headed back down to the Piazza to 'open my office' again. My previous perch on the statue had been taken but I found another site from which to work which was in the shade. At about 6:30pm, we decided it was time to eat so we headed down to the Piazza again, which was rapidly filling up with people. All the restaurants were full so we headed back towards our hotel, checking every restaurant (and there are several!) on the way – all full. Eventually we found one not that far from our hotel and after we sat down, others joined us. I don't know whether this is a regular occurrence, maybe only on Saturday nights, but the service was incredibly slow. I imagine that the only reason people didn't leave was that they had no other option. 

After eating, I took the video camera down to the Piazza once again, this time to film the crowds waiting for Sting to appear. I came back to the hotel, started writing this blog and heard Sting open his concert at 8:30pm prompt. He is now on his third number, "An Englishman in New York". He opened with "Everything she does is magic", followed by one of his solo songs whose name escapes me at the moment. The sound is not particularly clear from the back of the hotel – maybe it's better at the front, and even better in the Piazza, even though he can't be seen. As Sting is not an artist of whom I am particularly fond, my current position on my hotel room balcony facing away from the Piazza is fine.