Berna

Bern, a European Capital that I was missing on my travel list. It remained an exotic destination among the capitals of Europe since i was a kid.

Mainly for two reasons.
1. The first one is obvious to most of the Italians that were kids in the 80s and in the early 90s: *Latte Berna!*

of course... a brand of milk called like the Swiss capital, with a nice Cow that was smiling at you from a tetra pack. If i remember correctly the Berna Milk was famous not just for the advertisement but as well because it was fresh milk in tetrapack. In the late 80s it was a hit!

2. Second reason why Bern had always a specific corner of my geographical imagination was a *book on European Capitals* that was collected through an italian magazine called “Oggi”.

“Oggi” (I don't even know if it still existing. Was a kind of people weekly not really yellow press but fair enough close to it. But at some point they decided to give as present a book on European Capitals. It was 1988. And it had all the capitals of Europe from the west and from the east.

My parents were not usually buying “Oggi” it was my grandma stuff, but for the occasion of the book on European Capital they were buying it...

...week after week I was diving in my first Pan-European Trip.
I was amazed by the colorful churches of the red square of Moscow, for me they were the closest building to a fairytale I ever saw in a photography – then “Russians” of Sting was being often played on the radio and now i still connect the song with those images (and the one of Laika, the first dog on space, Russian as well of course)
...and of course I had my preferences. For example I was going back to some of the cities, while others I was neglecting. I remember I was neglecting – for example Sofia for some unexplainable reason – and others that i just found boring, this was the case of Bonn, the Capital of West Germany. I loved East Berlin and the picture of the television tower on Alexanderplatz with the DDR flags.

Among those big capitals, with long explanations, maps that were not entering in three pages (like london... that was just simply too big in size for a 9 years old boy) Bern (or rather “Berna”) was squeezed, just close to Budapest and Chausescu's Bucharest. Only one picture. The Tower with the clock. An amazing clock, with moving statues, moons, stars and other planets. I always wanted a clock like that at my place. And I never though I would have seen this clock only in 2009.... more than 20 years later.

I came to Switzerland several times, but never in Bern. And it was a nice surprise to discover that there was more than the clock in this small little cute town.

Now I am in the middle of the clouds again, in the train, small station, Vauderens, already in the french canton.

Beautiful green under the storm.
But too rural for this urban blog.