The Italian-Swiss convention on the navigation of Lake Maggiore is not touched. The Swiss federal government confirmed this by rejecting the proposal of the Ticino deputy Bruno Storni, who had asked to interrupt relations with Italy to unblock a situation that he considered “prejudicial to the economy, tourism and public transport”.
After the sharp “no” in Bern, now an inter-party group of deputies has addressed a question to the government of the Canton of Ticino asking to take the situation in hand even only at the local level, with the aim of encouraging the tourism purposes of the use of boats on Lake Maggiore.
The new request is aimed at modifying the agreement by expanding the territory involved in nautical relations. Not only the lake, but also the river spaces that directly affect Switzerland south of the lake basin. For many years Locarno has always looked at Milan through the Lombard canals. And, as is well known, the Swiss have widened the horizon as far as Venice, through the Ticino, the Po and the sea.
“Extraordinary waterway”
Now Niccolò Salvioni, president of the Locarno-Milan-Venice association (born in Switzerland half a century ago), is making an innovative proposal asking the cantonal government to fight for “a reciprocal opening of freedom of river navigation also on the extraordinary international tourist waterway “.
This was followed by a concrete request to set up a “control room that directs, plans and develops the necessary navigation infrastructures, with piers, landing ports, safe routes, and the completion of the navigation locks still missing for the connection with the Adriatic Sea ».
A control room that would make it possible to achieve the same goals that Switzerland has achieved for some time north of the Alps thanks to international commissions that are operational for the promotion of tourist lines on the Danube and Rhine basins.
In short, we must not only look at the pre-alpine lakes, but also at the river resources that are increasingly popular with an audience of “sailors” for pleasure.