lifestyle & travel 15
8 November 2015
Limone sul Garda: Where to find the secret to a long life? LIMONE SUL GARDA — The breathtaking beauty and sheer size of Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy, makes it a popular holiday destination for Italians and foreigners alike. Picturesque towns line the lake’s shores, making a tour of the entire 145-km (90-mile) shoreline a delight. But Limone
sul Garda, on the narrower, more mountainous stretch of the lake to the north, is one of the most captivating. “Limone” means “lemon” in Italian and the town was known for growing lemons and other citrus fruits. But the name is actually a coincidence as the town itself is much older than the lemon
groves and the name could come from the Latin word for boundary. Among the most striking features of Limone are the pillars and walls marking its shoreline that remain from gardens where lemons were grown. They were described by renowned German writer Johann Wolfgang von
The pack of riders of the Giro D’Italia cycling race pass Lake Garda during the 20th 175 km stage from Predazzo to Madonna di Campiglio on 4 June 1999 file photo. Photo: Reuters
Goethe in the 18th century, bringing the town to the attention of an international literary audience. Limone has another claim to fame. In the late 1970s, a former inhabitant was found to have a protein in his blood that removes fats from arteries and takes them to the liver where they are eliminated, thus warding off cardiovascular diseases. After testing the inhabitants of Limone, it was discovered that all carriers of the gene were descended from one married couple in Limone in the 17th century. The gene is still being passed on, with more young carriers identified in Limone, and work to produce a drug based on the gene continues. The typical Limone diet is rich in local fish, olive oil and citrus fruits and the climate is moderate, so it is not surprising that a high percentage of Limone’s residents are over 80 years old. Limone was a small and isolated village only accessible by boat or mountain path until the 1930s, with people making a living from olive groves, citrus fruit and fishing. Isolation ended, however, when the so-called Gardesana
road was dug out of the mountainside, connecting Limone with neighbouring towns and opening it up to tourism. The road has become famous in its own right. The car chase that opened the 2008 James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace” was filmed on an arched stretch to Limone from the nearby town of Riva. Parts of the racy Aston Martin car used in the film are on display at the La Paz bar in Riva. Limone’s first lemon groves date back centuries and much effort was put into building structures that worked rather like greenhouses to protect the trees from winter temperatures. In fact, Limone was the northernmost location in the world where citrus fruit was grown commercially, and it was exported to Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, other parts of northern Europe and Russia. Competition from the south reduced demand for Limone’s lemons and by the 1900s production started to die off. Vestiges of the industry remain all over Limone, however, from the lemon grove pillars to the lemon emblem on buildings and streets.—Reuters
Swiss canton eyes scrapping German-language requirement for wealthy foreigners ZURICH — The canton of Zug, with 120,000 residents, now requires that foreigners from countries including Russia, South Africa and the United States learn German if they want to obtain permanent residency. Some well-heeled foreign residents have balked at this demand, however, leaving Zug worried that they make take their money elsewhere, just as local financial officials expect a 2016 budget deficit of 26.3 million Swiss francs ($26.4 million). “The canton of Zug is small, and it impacts us when people with significant income and wealth move away,” Beat Villiger, an elected member of Zug’s government, told Reuters. “And Zug is currently grappling with austerity measures.”
Under a plan backed by the local Swiss People’s Party and FDP factions, those seeking permanent residency would be allowed to skip German lessons if they earn 1 million francs annually and have taxable assets of 20 million francs. The less-wealthy would still be put through their paces in the German classroom. Those in favor of the plan face hurdles, however. The two factions backing the plan hold just less than half of the 80 seats in the local parliament, so they would need to peel off a few votes from oter parties to push it through. The opposition Greens have voweto block the move or try to get it overturned if passed. Others also say that treat-
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ing the wealthy preferentially may be out of line with Swiss law. “Making exceptions for wealthy residents hardly seems to conform to constitutional principles,” said Alberto Achermann, a professor of migration law at the University of Berne. Switzerland’s decentralised system of government allows individual cantons to decide how to ensure foreigners seeking permanent residency are integrated into the culture. While some have few formal requirements, Zug requires foreign residents to attend language classes. If the proposal to offer an exception to the wealthy is voted down, the Zug parliament could alternatively scrap its language-learning require-
ment altogether. But proponents of the latest move want to keep the German language mandate in general, even as they let a small slice of the wealthy bypass this obligation. Villiger suggested only about 2 foreigners annually would take advantage of the exception. “For these people, it would be easy for them to simply pick up and settle in another canton without a German requirement,” he said. Zug has pursued a lowtax strategy as it seeks to lure companies and wealthy individuals. Single people with no children who earn 1 million francs face a tax rate of only about 23 percent. As a result, ex-pats have arrived in droves, with foreigners accounting for 26 percent of
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Zug’s population last year, up from just 15.6 percent in 1990. Among foreigners who call Zug home are deep-sea oil explorer Transocean, ex-White House chief of staff Bill Daley’s hedge fund Argentiere Capital, South African-born Ivan Glasenberg’s Glencore and Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. On Thursday, a Zug government spokesman said lawmakers may debate the German-language exemption within weeks. Should it become law, however, Zug’s Green party has pledged to launch a voter referendum to overturn it. “Everybody should have the same rights regardless of how fat their wallets are,” party secretary Marco Knobel told Reuters.—Reuters
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