In today's episode of Wesley Loves a Real Specific Nonfiction read today we have one about a series of places that I would like to visit - the Alps!
What I appreciate about this book is the incredible range of topics that this book covers, like the title suggests you get Heidi and Hannibal but you also get more modern takes on things that effect the Alps. Also, holy shit, the amount of really terrible accidents that I learned about in this book. There are accidents in traffic tunnels (the Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire - also side not the beautiful Chamonix Valley is the most polluted valley in france thanks to all of the exhaust of the trunks that are funneled through the tunnel), more mountaineering accidents than I could possibly recount here, and one of the most horrifying things that I have ever heard of - the Kaprun Cable Car Fire. Lots of bad awful things happening in beautiful places.
The books is a travel memoir along with a history and the author recounts his experiences in places and with people along the way. One thing that he learns from his travels is the "lard line" - on the north side of the Cottian Alps they used animal fat and on the south side they use olive oil. Theres a map that Ive seen that I really love where theres a line and on the north side it's all potatoes and on the south side it's all tomatoes.
- Did you know that Europe's largest Tibetan population is in Switzerland? There was an influx after the Chinese occupation of the country. Maybe the Alps remind them of home?
-According to the Heidi museum, the book Heidi is the third most translated book in the world after the Bible and the Quaran. Seems like......something you would say about your own book in your own museum, but hey, what do I know?
-WWI was really costly for the Italians. 689,000 dead, over a million seriously disabled and 600,000 civilians were killed. 100,000 Italian POWs died in captivity because the Italian government refused to supply food to their POWs like literally every other country did because they didn't want it to encourage desertion. They also shot 750 of their own soldiers.
I absolutley reccommend this book - funny, interesting, informative. Anything I could ever want!
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