ANNIVERSARY

We all know that the path to paradise is rocky but must the rocks tower to 2113m above sea level? And if God writes “straight with crooked lines”, does it have to be tight 180° bends that are less than 100m apart? And must it start snowing – a quarter of an hour before leaving the warm autumnal weather in Germany which is caught up in the midst of its reunification celebrations as I reach the foot of the Splügen Pass, my car still fitted with summer tyres – forcing me to turn back half way up? Or is this the incipient demise of the occident following a political “landslide” in Bavaria the Sunday before? Well whatever it is, I carefully pick my way back down, travelling instead along the Hinterrhein River, via the San Bernardino Pass and sunny Ticino, the other paradise that I cannot even begin to enjoy as, with 80km still to go, the big hand on my watch reminds me that there are just a few minutes to go until the agreed meeting time with the Signora – who has, of course, been informed of the delay and is very understanding. Thanks to a traffic jam caused by an accident and a heavily congested road along the Lago di Como, after which I am painfully aware of the exact width of my car, I finally pull into the Officina Meccanica Domaso to be welcomed by a cheerful Gabriella Kunz, the “Signora”, who despite the two-and-a-half-hour wait is not grieved in the slightest.

60 and still raring to go

The occasion is a very special one: Officina Meccanica Domaso, or OMD for short, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of machinery for making and processing springs, turned 60 this year. In 1948 an inventive engineer by the name of Emil Kunz, who was born in Schaffhausen in 1901, decided to make special machinery together with his son Hans. And since the two of them loved their holidays on Lake Como which they reached by bicycle (not the easiest form of transport in the Alps!), Emil Kunz decided to set up his factory in this holiday paradise so that they could work where not only he but many others loved to spend their holidays in the late 1940s.
It was not long before the two founders started specialising in wire processing machines, and in automotive chamfering and grinding machines. Innumerable innovations in these fields showered them with patents. In 1967 Officina Meccanica Ing. E. Kunz was transformed into a public company after a distribution partnership was created. The firm was renamed OMD SpA, in which Emil and Hans Kunz continued to hold a large stake. Production was then focused on spring grinding machines. In 1984 the Kunz family clawed back the remaining shares becoming sole owner of the entire share package once more. Gabriella Kunz, daughter of Hans Kunz, has been at the helm of OMD SpA since 1999.
Today the company chiefly produces conventional and high-performance CNC spring end grinders, spring threaders for compression, tension and leg springs, coiling benches for cold-formed springs and measuring and regulating devices for spring production. In cooperation with competent partners, OMD also supplies complete systems and expertise for spring production in general and valve, clutch, fuel injection pump and train springs in particular. Cylinder block grinding and special-purpose machines round off the product spectrum.

Conquering paradise

More than 200 guests flocked to Lake Como to congratulate OMD and its representatives. This spectacular lake is situated close to Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano and several other lakes in the southern Alps, forming among the most idyllic landscapes in the world. The majority of guests were from German-speaking Europe and Italy with others making the journey from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Poland, Russia, Spain, Scandinavia and the Czech Republic. Even though the participants were from so many different countries and in some cases competitors, the atmosphere was very amicable – not only because there were many familiar faces or the weather was kind to us; but also because the organisers opted for a casual dinner without a seating plan, enabling like minds to come together (beyond linguistic barriers as everyone could master a little German and pochissimo italiano and if need be English and French); and above all, because OMD not only offers first-class products and excellent service but clearly knows how to take care of its customers, automatically making everyone feel comfortable.
Within the company itself, its managers and staff also appear to have taken good care of each other over the decades – something that is typical for many family-run businesses in Central Europe – and fortunately for the region, this caring attitude evidently also stretches beyond the firm’s “four walls”. The Kunz family and its business have contributed much to the community of Domaso and the region along the northern shores of Lake Como, as Domaso’s mayor Luigi Lusardi stressed several times in his speech in which he extended his heartfelt thanks to Gabriella Kunz and her staff – a speech that could be understood without a profound knowledge of Italian.

Dolce far niente

Let’s be honest: For many, or perhaps even most of the guests the official part of the celebration was only the start, the prelude to the climax of the weekend: this was a boat trip on the sunny, yet bitingly windy Lago di Como on what was probably the most elegant vessel on the entire lake with entertaining live music and delicious Italian cuisine.
It is time now to make a correction: The accuracy of this article’s headline was sacrificed for the sake of a play on words based on Adriano Celentano’s “Una festa sui prati”; By definition it should have read “Una festa sul lago” as the y-shaped 4.2km wide, but over 50km long and 425m deep Lago di Como which is just 200m above sea level, is, in fact, a single lake despite its three very narrow arms. But what a lake! In the north, the snow-capped Swiss Alps rise to over 3000m above sea level, contrasting with the low mountains to the east and west that look more like partially wooded hills rising to an estimated 300m to 600m. This cultural and natural landscape offers something for everyone: Sheer stratified rock is a reminder that the Alps were the seabed in the age of the dinosaurs before being pushed up into a high mountain range by the African and Adriatic Plates – this has lead some to make the catty assertion that the natural border between Europe and Africa is actually along the northern edge of the Alps, for example, between Bad Tölz and Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Lindau and Bregenz ...
Getting back to Lake Como: In stark contrast to the snow-topped peaks, one also sees vineyards, cypress trees and, above all, palm trees close to the shore, illustrating that the temperatures in the “heart” of the Alps seldom fall below freezing. Numerous villages and little towns are squeezed into the narrow belt between the lake and the steep slopes, where the odd hamlet can be spotted. The houses are typically Italian. First-time visitors can often only tell the difference between the villages by the church spire or Campanile – or by other striking buildings, luxury homes or hotels, which though imposing and full of splendour always blend with the landscape. This is helped by the colour of the walls which are predominantly painted in earthy tones. Bright colours are few and far between and are restricted to the window shutters which are sometimes bright blue or green.

All good things come to an end ...

Even the most beautiful afternoon turns to evening – the time to return home. Once again, the time has come to attempt the Splügen Pass, known in Italian as the Passo Spluga. On the southern side of this seemingly endless 30km mountain pass riddled with hairpin bends, driving is comparatively easy, given the south-facing slopes! But what will it be like on the short, but treacherous shady northern side, which is no more than 7km long? The Italian customs officer at the top says “pulito”, suggesting that the road ahead has been cleared of snow. And indeed, the slopes are snowy but the road is clear. After a day in the sun, not even a snow line of 700m can fluster me on this beautiful starry night. Even so: Next time, I think I might just take the motorway through San Bernadino and Lugano. The shortest route is not always the best. hgs

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