Sunday, Jun 21, 2015
Today’s adventure was our journey from Suoz to Lugano, which is the largest city [but not the capital] of the canton Ticino that borders with Italy. Located on the shores of Lake Lugano, with a year round moderate climate, the city is one of Switzerland’s most popular holiday resorts. The primary language is Italian, with some English, and not very much Swiss-German. This is my first visit to this canton and city, and I love it!
But first, lets talk about the trip itself. The day long journey consisted of two parts. The first part was a train ride – The Bernina Express. It runs along 76 miles of track, passing thru 55 tunnels, and 196 bridges and viaducts. The line it follows is an incredible engineering feat. That and the landscapes along its route has earned it recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The train originated in Chur and ended just inside Italy in Tirano. We boarded the train in Pontresino, which is about halfway between Chur and Tirano. This train ride was fabulous! While the Glacier Express was fantastic, we all agreed that the Bernina Express was far more impressive. It is very difficult to describe the experience of gliding over, through, and around these mountains. Unfortunately, as I mentioned yesterday, we lost Roselie’s camera along with all the photos of this train ride. We used her camera to record the spiraling of the train downwards through three complete circles. Amazing! I predict we will take this ride again, but start in Chur to get the full experience. I highly recommend anyone visiting Switzerland, to take this train.
We had a two-hour layover in Tirano before boarding a bus for the rest of the ‘Bernina Express’ journey to Lugano. Stepping out of the train station into a small, cobble-stoned piazza was like entering another world – it is Italy. We settled at an outdoor restaurant on the piazza to wait for the bus and to have lunch. PIZZA!!! We had the best pizza we’ve ever had, along with a serving of buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes. As the boys said, it doesn’t get much better. The square also provided constant entertainment. As I mentioned, the piazza is very small, surrounded with eateries and shops. The piazza had marked off space for taxis and 5 spaces for cars. The markings were irrelevant. Just imagine 10-12 Italian drivers parking their cars in this space, and then running into a shop or restaurant – blocking each other and the driving lane. So what if traffic was backed up because they couldn’t get through. No big deal, eh!. When the driver of a blocked car showed up, he just started yelling, waving his/her arms, and then ran into shops and restaurants to find the culprit. When he found the other driver, they both came out yelling at each other and waving their arms. We are in Italy!
We could have stayed there all afternoon, but reluctantly, it was time to board the bus for the second part of the trip to Lugano. UGH! I donta wannta talk ‘bout it! It was a 3 ½ hour trip through Italy, on windy roads and along a lake. I’m sure the scenery was beautiful, but we couldn’t see much through the small bus windows. We crossed the Italian/Swiss border just a few miles from the center of Lugano.
Our hotel in Lugano
Getting our bearings!
The streets and alleys are beautiful.
View of the city.
Lake Lugano from the promenade.
Our hotel is in the center of the old city overlooking one of the main piazzas. It is very charming. To get a sense of the city, we took a short exploratory walk on the promenade which runs along the lakeshore. That worked up our appetites. We were ready for PASTA! We zeroed in on an outdoor restaurant in the Piazza della Riforma, which reportedly has the best pasta in the old city. OUTSTANDING food! As Gregory said:” Oh Yeah! I can live here! I feel at home.”
We’re still searching for our camera. Should we find it, I will update this post with photos of our Bernina Express train ride.
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