Lugano - Aug 12th

Well the first day we really had bad weather although it wasn't so bad. It started raining last night and it rained on and off most of the day. Although when it was raining it wasn't too hard. I planned a museum day but by the time I did my computer stuff and then hit the daily lecture it was already 1PM. Tania Singer gave a very technical but not very stimulating talk about how to test for emphathy. I guess it is important but she really didn't explain why.

I looked on the map and there were 4 museums within a kilometer:

• Museo Cantonale d'Arte - I later found it but originally I misread the map
• Museo Villa Ciani - Closed
• Museo Cantonale di Storia Naturale - Found it after stopping at the library but it was closed also
  
• Museo della Culture - I thought it was closed but based on the next day's trip, I never found it.
  

Well in the middle I found the library and the librarian pointed me to the Museo d'Arte museum which was suppose to be open. I found it and it turns out that an introspective exihibit on Swiss Culture called Enigma Helvetica (check these videos out) was going on there and at the Museo Cantonale d'Arte. It was OK and I learned a little about Switzerland:

• A few early Paul Klee paintings
• Some really nice Giovanni Giacometti, father of Alberto, landscapes plus one of his son's thin scuptures
• A cool exhibit of watch parts. They some of the smaller pieces under magnifying glasses so you really get a feeling for how small and precise they are
• A strange exhibit on junk this one guy hung up on his homestead. They ended up dumping everything after his death but some 'lucky' stuff was saved by some of the workers.
• Pictures, models, and painting of trains in Switzerland. The Swiss love to build tunnels through the mountains. The train system is run by the post office, I guess they figured that if you had to get the mail through, then people aren't that much harder.
  

The evening activity at the congress was 4 Alexander Technique teachers gave a music recital. Most of the performers are professionals and the concert was pretty good. I liked the .... the best.