Just For Fun: Pesce d'Aprile!
In case you were wondering, Italians do enjoy April Fool's Day too. They call it pesce d' aprile. It can be used to indicate the day itself, such as April Fool's Day, or the joke, as in un pesce d'aprile, and also the exclamation, pesce d'aprile! This article ran in the Verbania News this morning, claiming that a billionare from California has found a way to extract bits of gold from the bottom of Lago Maggiore using a new type of magnet. Here's a bit of the article in Italian, for those of you who can:
And here's that bit quickly translated:Nelle acque (o meglio sui fondali) del Lago Maggiore vi sarebbero tonnellate d'oro in minuscole particelle. D'altra parte le montagne delle valli attorno sono aurifere (come sanno a Pestarena di Macugnaga, ma miniere d'oro c'erano anche a Cannero e in altre località e il Ticino veniva in passato setacciato dai cercatori d'oro). Ma come fare a recuperare tutto l'oro disperso? Ci proverà la Springhouse Fisherman Ltd del miliardario californiano John Shark che ha brevettato un magnetizzatore aureo. In sostanza si tratta di un sottomarino che attraversando il lago creerà un campo magnetico in grado di attrarre solo le particelle di materiali con peso specifico elevato come quello dell'oro ...
In the water (or rather in the seabed) of Lake Maggiore, there may be tons of gold in small particles. In valleys on the other side of the nearby mountains are gold (such as at Pestarena Macugnaga, but there were also gold mines in other locations in Cannero and Ticino that were sieved in the past by gold miners). But how do you recover all the gold lost into the seabed? Springhouse Fisherman Ltd., the company of John Shark, a California billionaire who has patented a 'magnetizer aureus', a gold magnet, will try to do just that. In essence, a submarine will cross the lake and create a magnetic field capable of attracting only the particles of materials with a high specific weight such as gold ...
It seems technical and authentic. But have you noticed the clever name the Italians have given to the billionaire? John SHARK? A buon pesce d'aprile indeed!
But this does mean it is April, it's spring, and all is open in Stresa. Coming up soon ... a summary of the major gardens around Stresa, more souvenir ideas, and other activites you can do around the lake.
Category Article just for fun
