Lake Como

Just half an hour from noisy, bustling Milan, Lake Como is a jewel-like oasis of tranquillity, a magical combination of lush Mediterranean foliage and snowy alpine peaks. One of the best vantage points for this breathtaking view is in Piazza Cavour, on the banks of the lake in the town of Como. The cathedral here (pictured at left) is often cited as the best example of transitional architectural styles: to immediately understand what this means, compare the stunning gothic façade with the 18th-century dome above it.


At the heart of Como's walled Old Town, Piazza San Fedele has many 400-year-old buildings and the basilica, one of the masterpieces of the maestri comacini (masters of Como). At the top of Via Cantù you'll see the old wall's most spectacular standing tower, the Porta Vittoria. Nearby is the very austere church of San Abbondio. Rest awhile in its cloisters, then climb the hill behind it and go to the top of the Baradello Tower, for a lovely view of the entire lake. Next, walk back down the hill and visit Como's third great basilica, the early romanesque San Corpoforo.




Walking (or driving) along the western perimeter of the lake, you can stop in at the Tempio Voltiano, a surprising classic temple with marble columns and mosaic floors, housing the apparatus of Alessandro Volta, inventor of a battery that was the first reliable source of electricity. His name lives on today in the term "volt." Walk a bit farther in this direction if you want to visit the beautiful formal gardens and wild park of Villa dell'Olmo, a sumptuous lake home named after an elm forest mentioned by Pliny the Younger in the days when Como was a flourishing Roman outpost.


Before leaving Como, be sure to take the funivia up to Brunate for a truly spectacular view (and a change of temperature!). If you're a hiker, take the footpath up to Monte Boletto.



From Como, it's just a short drive to Cernobbio, whose old town features a delightful collection of picturesque houses and narrow alleys. This is the site of the fictional Villa Baglianello, the elegant family-home-cum-pensione featured in the film "A Month by the Lake." Nearby is one of the grandest hotels in all Europe, the Villa D'Este (pictured at right), whose rooms are almost like museum galleries and whose grounds boast Italy's only "floating swimming pool" (it actually sits atop the lake). Up the road is Toriggia, where you can visit Villa Passalacqua, a late 18th-century home where Vincenzo Bellini once stayed.


As you travel north you'll see Como's only island, Isola Comacina. The best day of the year to take the ferry over to the island is the week end after June 24th, when St. John's Day is celebrated with a mass in the ruins of the S. Eufemia basilica, followed by a costumed procession and night-time fireworks.



Lake Como is renowned for its exquisite villas, and probably the most famous one is Villa Carlotta, a perfect combination of luxurious interiors (beautiful stuccos, lovely ceiling frescoes and a great art collection, including an Eros and Psyche by Antonio Canova) and luxuriant exteriors (over 500 species of plants, trees and shrubs from all over the world).



Tremezzo is another lovely lakeside town. There's a classic lakeside promenade, as well as many wonderful old villas (some of which have been converted to hotels), and it's from here you can take a car ferry over to Bellaggio and Varenna, on the opposite shore.

Varenna may be the most picturesque town on the lake, its steep winding alleys lined with charming homes, flowering balconies and lace-curtained windows. Just above it is the ancient castle where Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards, is said to have died in the 7th century. Two famed villas to visit here are Villa Cipressi, with terraced gardens cascading right down to the shores, and Villa Monastero, a true showcase.



On the southern shore is Bellaggio, la perla del lago (the pearl of the lake), considered by many to be the most beautiful town in all of Europe. Its narrow cobbled streets, breathtaking views, impeccable homes and glorious villas (pictured above is Villa Serbelloni) make it a most enchanting spot to spend your own unforgettable "Month by the Lake."

Google widens lead in US searches: Report

SAN FRANCISCO: Internet search firm Google Inc took its widest-ever lead in the US search market in March, according to new figures released on
Wednesday by comScore.

Google had a 63.7 percent share of the 14.3 billion US searches in March, up 0.4 percentage points from February, and above the 63.5 percent level that was its previous high.

Yahoo Inc saw its US search share inch downwards in March to 20.5 percent, from 20.6 percent in February. The new data comes as Internet firms are due to report first-quarter earnings, with Google's slated for Thursday.

Overall US search queries in March increased 9 percent from February, according to comScore. But February was three days shorter than March.

The number of search queries per day in March equates to 462.3 million versus 468 million searches per day in February, according to Reuters calculation.

Microsoft Corp's share of the US search market increased by 0.1 percentage points to 8.3 percent in March.

IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask Networks and Time Warner Inc's AOL each saw slight monthly declines in searches in March, with 3.8 percent and 3.7 percent shares respectively.

Chateau D'ori - The vineyards and wineries of Nashik-

From a distance, the rotunda, which nestles against the foothills of the dun-coloured Nehra-Ori, looks like a concert hall that has carelessly settled in the middle of nowhere. Once inside, it has the character and the appurtenances of a truly modern winemaking enterprise.

The Chateau D’Ori estate, situated near Dindori, some 22 kilometres from Nashik, reveals its difference even as you drive up the unpaved road to the winery. The vines are ‘trained’ under the vertical shoot positioning system, which puts all the shoots along a trellis to form a hedge-like wall of leaves. Grapes receive sunlight in a greater and much more even fashion under this system than those that grow in the bushy vines trained in pergolas, which increase canopy cover.

The VSP system allows for more plants per acre (though less yield per plant), requires less pesticide, does not tax the plant as much and, perhaps most importantly, allows the grapes to mature more uniformly. Some other wineries have begun planting in this style, and Ranjit Dhuru, Chateau D’Ori’s Chairman and Managing Director, regards it as one of the unique features of his estate.



The grapes are processed in the heart of the winery, a circular domed hall, with stainless steel tanks. Grapes are sorted manually and go into a transfer tank after de-stemming from which they are transferred to fermentation tanks via gantries. One of the other distinctive features of Chateau D’Ori is that gravity, as opposed to pumping, is used wherever possible. Rather than pump-over, the punch down method is used to break the cap — that solid mass of grape skin and pips that forms a crust in the fermentation tank and which needs to be sporadically broken to enhance flavour and tannins. And the wine is fed into the bottling unit, located below, entirely by gravity. Gravity flow facilities are becoming popular in some small sized estates in California and elsewhere. Apart from enhancing energy and resource efficiency, the belief is that moving wine via gravity treats it as gently as possible, reducing undesirable tannin leach and harsh flavours, something that is better for all wine but can irreparably damage a delicate and demanding fruit such as Pinot Noir.

There is still some unfinished work at the Chateau D’Ori facility but it is easy to see that it has been conceived and executed as an integrated one. At one level, this reflects the vision and the effort of Ranjit Dhuru — the head of a Mumbai-based Rs. 400 crore software company, who becomes animated when he talks about viticulture and wine-making. The good thing about Chateau D’Ori is that it is not just a business, but also a passion.

The even better thing, in my opinion, is that wine-makers like him hold out the best hope for Nashik. If the region will start producing truly world-class wines, the chances are that men who understand that wine-making is a kind of artistry rather than a prosaic trade will produce it. Luckily for Nashik, there are at least three or four of them around.

Dhuru has ambitious plans such as using another 300 acres to experiment with varietals not commonly planted in India such as such as Pinot Noir, Malbec, Grenache and Pinot Grigio. I sipped the range of whites and reds he produces from barrels and fermentation tanks. Frankly, I can’t say I enjoyed them all, but his top-end reds came off much better than his whites, particularly the Cabernet Merlot, full of ripe aromas and a soft clean palate.

But it is impossible to walk away from his winery without feeling that it can only get better, in fact much better, from here. Not just for Dhuru alone but for Nashik.

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Coimbatore Mulls a 1000MW dedicated power plant

Chennai, April 10 (IANS) Fed up with unfulfilled promises from political parties, industry chambers, non-governmental organisations and residents associations in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore city have now given their ten point mission for Lok Sabha aspirants.

“One of the top 20 industrialised cities in the country and Tamil Nadu’s second largest city has been neglected in terms of provision of basic necessities and development of infrastructure,” C.R. Swaminathan, president, Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) told reporters here Friday.

According to him, suggestions from people of Coimbatore received in response to newspaper advertisements were compiled as ten missions for implementation.

“We don’t want to nominate anybody as independent candidate in the forthcoming elections. We will give this to all the political parties as we feel implementation of infrastructure projects needs their support.”

The detailed agenda of the ten point mission include construction of a ring road and by-pass roads, setting up of Coimbatore Urban Development Authority and revising the master plan, housing for slum dwellers under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), improving healthcare, building an agri export complex, improving water bodies, tourism development and augmenting infrastructure facilities like power, railway lines and airports.

According to Swaminathan, the various projects listed in the Vision Kovai Mission 10 would involve an outlay of around Rs.10,000 crore (Rs.100 billion) excluding power projects, and can be completed in five years.

Citing tax revenue of around Rs.3,500 crore (Rs.35 billion) paid by residents and organisations located in Coimbatore, he said the government can recover its investments on these projects in a short time through increased tax collections.

He said the associations are also mulling the idea of building a 1,000 MW thermal power station in Tuticorin to meet the needs of Coimbatore.

Construction of Tidel park Coimbatore

Nokia ready to take on BlackBerry, iPhone

NEW DELHI: Nokia, the world’s largest handset maker, will launch an e-mail platform for its mid- and high-end handsets on Wednesday as it attempts to challenge the dominance of RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone, both known for their better e-mail services.

While Nokia is the market leader in handset sales in India by a long shot, the company so far did not have an answer to BlackBerry’s e-mail services widely used by corporates and other high-end users.

Nokia will first debut its new messaging and e-mail solution on its business-oriented E-series phone E75 in India, before extending it to other E-series and N-series handsets here. At present, all of Nokia’s high-end phones fall into two camps, the E series for enterprise and corporate use and the N series for entertainment such as video, photographs and music.

Currently, Nokia does not have an e-mail platform to allow its users to view e-mails from different accounts through a common client. Nokia users currently view their e-mail using its mail for exchange service, but the catch is that it supports only a single e-mail account at a time. It had also launched Nokia Messaging push e-mail service for its high-end handsets such as E71 and N95.

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ITC Fortune in Coimbatore

Hyderabad (PTI): Diversified business group ITC is planning to develop properties across the country depending on the demand and land availability, the Group's Hotels Division Senior Executive Vice-President Pawan Verma said.
"ITC (hotels division) is keen in development of properties across the country, depending on the demand and the availability of land (on its own)," Verma told reporters on Monday here.
In association with its wholly-owned subsidiary Fortune Park Hotels, ITC had already taken up the property development work at Bangalore and Coimbatore, he said.
Verma revealed that ITC is also considering few more hotel properties to be developed in tier II towns in Andhra Pradesh like Vijayawada, Tirupati etc.
"Fortune Park will invest in all these properties, while ITC will provide land," he said.

Coimbatore's IT Prowess

The Information Technology (IT) space in Coimbatore is expected to go up further in the next two years, pushing up exports, according to Ashok Bakthavatsalam, convener of the ICT panel of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Coimbatore Zone. Independent companies
He told The Hindu on Friday that the first wave of the IT sector arrived in Coimbatore with creation of infrastructure at various premises, including the Coimbatore Hi-Tech Infrastructure Private Limited (CHIL), Software Technology Parks of India facilities and Science and Technology Entrepreneurial Park. A number of independent companies had also started operations.
Software exports from Coimbatore now were about Rs. 550 crore and the figure would soon go up to Rs. 1,000 crore. However, this was relatively low as the other tier-two cities were already doing larger volumes. Economic Zone
The CHIL had created six lakh sq. ft of built-to-suit facilities at the Special Economic Zone. This could be scaled up to even 1.2 million sq. ft. It also had three anchor companies taking space at the built-to-suit campus. The annual exports from CHIL were about Rs. 100 crore now.
Growth in Coimbatore was likely to be more from the IT-enabled services segment. For companies in larger cities, moving over to Coimbatore would provide at least 20 per cent cost advantage. Infrastructure
“We were in dire need of infrastructure, especially for plug-and-play operations. When that is created, recession has set in,” he pointed out.
What was needed now was constant awareness about the potential here. Coimbatore should be promoted as an ideal location for IT and ITES companies.
The Government should expedite works on the Tidel park here, he said

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