Lugano

This past weekend we decided to take a quick trip to Lugano, Switzerland. Lugano is the largest city in the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, though it only has a population of about 60,000.

Despite Lugano being in the far south of the country, and us being located on the northern border of Switzerland, we were able to get there by train in about 5 hours. We left Konstanz and Singen around 3:30 PM and arrived in Lugano around 8:30.

Arriving in town, we could see how beautiful it was right away. Located on Lago di Lugano (Lake Lugano) just south of the Alps, Lugano is still in a very hilly area which creates great scenery. Huge hills surround the lake, with houses and villas dotting a number of the hills.

Lake Lugano is right on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The hills are very lush, and palm trees can be spotted all around the city of Lugano. Throw in 30-degree heat and its very easy to forget that you're in snowy Switzerland.

After arriving, we checked into our hotel about halfway down the hill from the train station, and then headed out to explore the town. The mostly pedestrian-only downtown is actually quite small. It's full of high end boutiques that are expensive even by Swiss standards. There are a number of squares around town, and we found a nice restuarant right on the main square for dinner. We sat on their patio to enjoy some delicious beef carpaccio and pizza, and its a good thing the patio was covered, because in the middle of our dinner, a huge thunderstorm hit the town and drenched the main square. However, by the time we were done dinner, the rain had stopped, and with the tropical-like Lugano heat, most of it had already dried up.

We went out Saturday without much of a plan, deciding to just wander around the city and see what it had to offer. We checked out the old town some more, walked along the waterfront and saw the St. Mary of the Angels Church, which dates back to the 16th century and has an amazing fresco of the Passion of the Christ painted on the wall inside. See the slideshow below for a picture of that.

After that, we walked along the water the opposite direction, through a very nice city park with some beautiful gardens, and had lunch at a little restaurant along the water. After lunch we spent some more time in the park before heading back to the hotel for a quick break. We then explored more of the town, including the St. Lawrence Cathedral, with its great location on the hill, dating back to the 8th century. We spent some time in the courtyard admiring the view of Lake Lugano before heading back into town for drinks and dinner. We each had some fresh pasta, bookended by some Port wine before and after dinner, a legacy from our trip to Portugal.

Before heading back on Sunday, we squeezed in one more walk along the lake. There wasn't too much else to do since everything was closed for Sunday, but that's alright, because just checking out one of the more beautiful places we've been was nice enough.