Corto Maltese visited Switzerland many times. One of those years was '24, when he reunited with his old friend, Professor Steiner from Prague. Their mission took them to Sion, a small town in the canton of Valais.
Corto set off on a great journey from Lausanne to pick up Steiner from the border with Italy, in Lugano, and from there to Sion. During the trip, they stopped at the home of the writer Hermann Hesse in Montagnola, in the canton of Ticino.
The area hosted the Morpheus guesthouse "Beautiful Sleep Guaranteed", which was a family business. The owners, Uanaz and Vanas, were friends with Corto and had a daughter, the fifteen-year-old Erika. Corto brought her a beautiful pink dress from Thuringia as a gift, a poetic color.
