Ascona Diary: Of Vegetarian Nudists and Oliver Neuville

The German national team have arrived at their Euro base-camp in the small Swiss town of Ascona, where they’ll hopefully reside up until the very end of the tournament. Jogi Löw is already busy doing what he likes best: fine-tuning and optimising. Which gives us time to explore Germany’s temporary home and uncover some fun facts and mysteries.

Hotel Giardino is the name of the luxurious accommodation Oliver Bierhoff personally picked and booked, after presumably personally reviewing and testing every 5-star hotel in Austria & Switzerland. The hotel has its’ own website and their motto is: un pò di più - a little bit more. A little bit extra was requested on top of the little bit more by the DFB, to better suite the special requirements of a football team. The staff had to upgrade the rooms with video game systems for the players and built a giant fence around the ground to keep tactics spies out.

Oliver Neuville’s role in Germany’s Euro squad is also taking shape. It’s not just about scoring late goals, converting penalties and having experience, he’ll also be in demand as a tourist guide. Ascona is located on the eastern shore of Lago Maggiore, while the only marginally bigger town of Locarno is located on the northern tip of said lake. Locarno is Oliver Neuville’s birthplace. Neuville’s grandfather is Belgian - hence the French name - his father is German and his mother is Italian and if you mix the three you apparently end up in Switzerland. He will follow in Arne Friedrich’s footsteps, who showed the team around in Berlin back in 2006.

One potential tourist attraction is the Monte Verità (Hill of Truth) in Ascona. The place is exhibiting unusually strong magnetic anomalies and had once been home to an early 20th century equivalent to hippies. The Dharma Initiative Vegetabile Cooperative Monte Verità had been founded by the rich Belgian industrial H. Oedonkoven and the pianist Ida Hoffman from Munich in 1900 with the goal to preach and actively live the return to nature. More specifically they “abhorred private property, practised a rigid code of morality, strict vegetarianism and nudism. They rejected convention in marriage and dress, party politics and dogmas.”

In any case, it’s going to be long and strainious tournament and a bit of extra magnetism can’t hurt.

More: FAZ