Lugano....a rainy but beautiful town

We spent our last couple of nights in Switzerland in another lakeside town called Lugano.It is located in southern Switzerland near the Italian border so most people spoke Italian and it had a very Mediterranean feel to it.

Lugano is also a resort town of about 60,000 and because of its location is home to many celebrities though we didn't see any. The lake is different from the others we visited in that it is has mountains straight up with few people living there except in the city.

A picture of one of the ferries that ply the lake, which crosses the Swiss-Italian border so that 2/3 of the lake is in Switzerland and 1/3 in Italy.

When we got to our accommodation we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it turned out to be.

The host, Kristina is Swedish married to a local guy and they live in a huge house shared by the in laws. She has converted part of the house into a little suite where we stayed as well as a bigger one bedroom apartment. The house is built into the cliff and not surprising is all up hill.

The back of the house

Our little courtyard...too bad it was raining most of the time, but we were quite comfortable here at Guesthouse Castagnola.

Kristina recommended a local restaurant which she said was a little ways up the hill...

So we started walking again, up a hill, around a turn and up another hill. Though the scenery was spectacular...

This church was above us and the church bells rang every hour and every half hour around the clock!

We finally found the restaurant much more than a little ways up the hill and enjoyed a great meal. This was Don's spaghetti with black clams and he said it was the best spaghetti he has ever eaten.

It was a slow night at the restaurant so the owner chef who was an Italian from Sicily came out for a chat. We chatted about family, the economy, retirement and many other things...

I think Don might be Italian!

It was raining the next day but in between the rain drops we walked about 3km along a path called the Olive Path to a small village called Gandria. It was just beautiful...

All the houses were hugging the shoreline.

The vegetation was very lush.

At the beginning of the trail we were in a very posh neighbourhood with huge homes.

The boats were all tied up at the private docks.

It started to rain so we ducked into a little cafe about half way along the path, a nice place for a rest.

We then set out for the little town at the end of the path.

Don is disappearing around the corner.

Many of the houses had beautiful artwork on their walls, one of my favourite Mother and Child.

A rower and a ferry on a wet day.

 

Lots of places to sit and admire the view.

 

We had a late lunch in the village in a little restaurant overlooking the lake.

My lunch...fresh filled pasta with sage.

Also a tribute to Italian opera even though we are still in Switzerland...

We took the ferry back to Lugano...

 

Some beautiful scenery on the way back...

Still in Gandria

The path we walked along seen from the water.

Vineyards just outside Lugano.

Almost back to the city...

 

When we got back to the dock we waited for the bus and made our way back to our place satisfied for another great day.

 

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