Monday, June 22, 2015
Our guide met us this morning and gave us a short history of Lugano’s fascinating and rich history. As an aside, Gregory hit the wall, so he decided to sleep a few extra hours and miss this guided tour.
A famous salami producer makes great sandwiches.
Beautiful fruit and vegetables. Reminded us of markets in Japan.
The tour started with food! Wonderful! The guide knew she couldn’t go wrong if she started with food. We visited a highly regarded pasta shop that was selling 3 foot long bundles of dried spaghetti. Here we are, ready to eat pasta again at 9:00 AM. We stopped at the store of a famous salami maker. Traditionally, he would hang his large salamis out front do dry and age. That ended one night, when someone took off with all of them. The local paper covered the theft and made a big issue of it. People who had never heard of the store, stopped by to buy his salami. His business quadrupled. He could not have wished for a better marketing campaign. However, he did stop hanging real salamis out front, so the ones in the picture above, are fake.
Fresh panettone.
Next up was a pastry shop unequalled anywhere. Mitchell started drooling. The panettones on display in the window looked like works of art. We learned that this cake should be eaten within a day. The ones we get in the US are filled with preservatives to maximize shelf-life….are we thinking of Twinkies? The shop is in a building that has quite a history.
Meeting room upstairs from the bakery shop, used for secret meetings.
It was originally a convent, to which families would ‘donate’ their daughters because they could not afford to feed and care for them. That was quite a common practice. The area was strewn with many such convents, specifically devoted to taking in young girls. Ultimately the government stepped in to stop this practice and ordered the disbandment of these convents.
The second floor holds a beautiful room where the nuns would take their meals. After the convent was shut down, it went through several ‘rebirths’ including a hotel and a restaurant. Primarily it served as a meeting place for politicians, scholars, artists, and dignitaries. Access to this large meeting room was ideal because participants could enter anonymously through one of secret entrances. As an example, in March 1944 a high-level meeting was held between German and Allied officials with a Swiss official serving as a mediator in what was called “Operation Sunrise”. This operation was the foundation for the surrender signed in April 1945. It not only saved Northern Italy from a “scorched earth” policy but also saved a large cache of Italian art in Milan. The German General at this meeting did not want to see this art destroyed.
Fresca depicting the story of Christ and mankind.
Our next point of interest was the Franciscan church, Santa Maria degli Angioli. Lugano was originally founded by Franciscan monks who were headquartered in St. Gallen. After several centuries, the people of Lugano were tired of paying taxes or tithings to the Franciscan order, so they forced them out. One of the legacies they left was the artwork in the church. The Franciscans were the ones that could read and write. So in order for the populace to understand the teachings of Jesus, the monks decided to tell the story visual via frescos.
City Park
Desolation
Our last stop was the Parco Civico (city park). The summer flowers had just been planted and everything looked refreshed. Beautiful outdoor art pieces were distributed throughout.
Lake Lugano
Cruising along the coast of Lake Lugano
Villas line the coast line of Lake Lugano
Relaxing on the water was in order for the afternoon. The shuttle ship Lugano, makes a circuit of stops around the lake – jump on, jump off anywhere. No jumping this afternoon for us – we decided to relax and enjoy the view. We spotted several homes or villas near the water that would be great to live in.
After the water excursion, our energy was back. We hadn’t forgotten the panettones. So we dashed back to the pastry shop . What? They were all gone? Looking for something to offset our disappointment, we went ‘hunting’ for Swiss chocolate. As you can see from the photo below, Mitchell is the champ on how much ‘game’ we bagged.
Hunters proudly displaying their bounty.
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