My 39th Birthday in Domodossola

Actually, I was 67 on my birthday, but the restaurant only had a "3' and a "9" candles, so I opted for 39 instead of 93.

Before we get to the birthday party, you need to hear about how we got to Domodossola from Locarno. Locarno is separated from Domodossola by the Centovalli, a combination of deep gorges and high mountains rising to, and crossing the Italian border to end in Domodossola. There is a road but the fun way to see this area is by train. These trains leave from a separate but adjacent station to the Locarno SBB station. It is underground, as is the railway until one gets out of the main town. After that, the train runs along the side of a deep valley and snakes its way upward and westward. At the Italian border, one may need to show a passport. The Italian border guards are a real riot to me. They all look and walk like Sylvester Stallone. If you are female, reasonably attractive, and unaccompanied by a man, you can be sure that you and your papers will get careful scrutiny.

At this time of year and with all the snow that Ticino got this winter, it was a beautiful ride. I had done this once in summer, but in winter, without all the tree foliage, one sees a lot more houses, huts, and paths along the walls of the valley. There is a webcam here.

http://www.costa-borgnone.ch/webcam2.htm

and some great pictures here

http://www.centovalli.ch/

One passes through numerous small villages along the way with stops at most. At Santa Maria Maggiore, one is at the highest point along the railway. We were going to get out and explore, but the snow was hip deep. From there on, one descends slowly downward through more villages until you reach the Ossla valley floor. Domodossola has its own separate station beneath the main train station for the Centovalli trains.

It was closing on noon, so we got directions and a map through town looking for Da Sciola restaurant, a recommendation of the tourist office. Domodossola is easy to navigate with a map, so we looked at the ancient walls of the city, some marvelous old Italian architecture, some interesting people, and just generally gawked around. Then we arrived at Da Sciola. The first person we saw was one of the tourist office people, so we figured if it was good enough for the natives, it would do for us.

The lady who seated us, spoke no English, but her German was better than ours. We decided to let her order our lunch. I found out later that barbara had told her later that this was my birthday. We had a wonderful meal of three courses with carpaccio, gnocchi in a walnut-gorgonzola sauce, and beef roast with polenta and veggies. The, to my surprise, out comes the head lady and three service people with a cake on which there was a "39". Two glasses of spumanti appeared, and the whole crew knew "Happy Birthday" in English no less. The chocolate/pear cake was cut and tasted very good in spite of the big meal before. While this was going on, the cell phone rings with greetings from my daughter and the two oldest grandkids. A better birthday, I do not remember! The whole meal cost 56 Euro (that would be 108,431 old Italian lire)

We walked off our lunch in the town and had time for an espresso before train time back to Locarno. The train fare was 30 CHF apiece round trip. The day was priceless!