Weekend Getaway
This past weekend, I seized the moment and took a weekend vacation in Lugano, which is in the Ticino canton in the Italian region of Switzerland. On the train ride here, my brain was having an extremely difficult time accepting the fact that no, I was not in Italy but rather in Switzerland. With the special role Italy has played in my life growing up – between my childhood best friend’s heritage and the start of my parent’s relationship – I have such strong associations when I hear the language. But yet here I was, still in Switzerland, listening to Italian, eating aracini and gelato. And even though it took almost 6 hours of bus and train travel, as the crow flies, Lugano is relatively close to Geneva! But, fun fact, to get there on the rout we took, we went through the world’s longest railway tunnel at 57km. Cool, eh?
Although Lugano has been on my list of places in Switzerland I am yearning to travel to, I had no plans to visit the city. The only reason I ended up coming on this trip was because I overheard other members of my program talking about going and not-so-subtly inserted myself into their plans. Originally, there was a group of 7 girls going together, but after people dropped out for a variety of reasons, we ended up with only 3 of us including myself. I had never traveled with these people before so I was excited to get to know them more and spend some quality time together. This also was my first time really taking a trip while abroad. Yes, I did go to Bütschwil by myself for the weekend, but because I was visiting family friends, it didn’t quite feel like a self-planned vacation. It was a very nice, low-key way to kick off my weekends of traveling that I will be embarking on in the coming weeks.
We arrived Friday afternoon and immediately took a funicular up the mountain of Monte Brè. We had read that there were restaurants and hiking atop this mountain, but we discovered an eerily empty and slightly dilapidated handful of buildings when we reached the top. We thought that it must be because it is off-season (the winter schedule for the funicular lasts until May 31 and almost nothing in Switzerland gets going until in June) or that it could just be the time of day. We walked around for a bit and enjoyed the panoramic views, but soon headed back down the mountain. Our next stop for the day, naturally, was a gelateria; I got a scoop of refreshing grapefruit. The three of us sat by the water, eating our ice cream and chatting while the late afternoon sun hung in the sky, bathing us in beautiful orange light. Eventually we found a really hip place to eat dinner that even reminded me a bit of LA oddly… It was incredible to me that we actually ended up speaking to our waitress in French (as we know no Italian and she didn’t know much English). The thoroughness with which everyone in this country knows at least three languages amazes me every day.
Saturday we took a day trip to…Italy! Because we could and why not, right? We took the mere 30-minute train ride from Lugano to Como, Italy, at the southern tip of Lake Como. Having met in Italy, the country holds a very special place in my parents’ hearts and they often get very excited about anything Italy-related. On the train there, I felt like I was turning into my parents because I could hardly contain my excitement, purely because it was Italy we were visiting. For whatever reason, even though I can hardly understand it, listening to Italian being spoken around me is very comforting.
As tourists anxious for spring, the three of us wore sundresses that day and even though we stuck out like sore thumbs, we soaked in every drop of sunshine we could. Reminiscent of the Cliff Walk in Newport from my childhood, we began our day walking along Lake Como behind a set of old villas. The main one, Villa Olmo, we could enter for free and take a gander through the elaborately painted rooms. Oddly, many of the walls were painted to look like marble and fake bas-reliefs, which played to deceiving tricks on my eyes. All along this waterfront path, there were vines upon vines of blossoming wisteria, which smelled and look absolutely amazing. There is something about flowering vines that really get me going. Oh, and not to mention the small pup (which definitely had some Jack Russell Terrier in him) who we met on one of the wisteria-covered gardens who made my day.
After lunch, we went into Como’s Cathedral. The ceiling was white with deep royal blue and gold designs, which were stunning. At the front of there church on either side of the main alter, there were 2 other smaller alters with completely different designs. Above one was Jesus and above the other was Mary. I am no expert but I think most of the cathedrals and churches I have been into have a very cohesive style so to have such differing designs – curved versus straight pillars, dark versus light stone, candles versus lanterns, Jesus versus Mary – in one church was really interesting. The cathedral also had two organs facing one another. It made me very curious about the origins of this cathedral. After visiting the cathedral we had what may have been some of the best gelato I have ever had; I got a cone with one scoop of Nutella and one scoop of Tiramisu. Delizioso!! We continued to bask in the sun and meander around the beautiful city, eventually making our way back to Lugano for dinner.
After some searching online and various personal recommendations, we ended up at an authentic Ticinese restaurant for dinner. In fact, as we were standing outside the door looking at the menu, an elderly woman came rushing out from inside to tell us “You really must eat here, you can’t go wrong!” And indeed she was right! We had a veil and polenta dish, a dish of asparagus and eggs with parmesan, and a small side plate of ratatouille and me oh my was this not one of the most delicious meals I have had in Switzerland! Apparently polenta is one of the specialties of the region so we were eager to try some, but the whole meal really impressed. We wiped all plates clean with bread so there was not a morsel left. And finally, of course, we had to top off our evening with gelato. Most establishments in Switzerland close early, but we managed to find one gelateria open past 9pm. I got an orange and rosemary gelato that was really incredible. We remarked that, by adding rosemary, it was really a very grown-up flavor. I really don’t feel very much like a grown up at all, but I have a feeling I will be thrust into adulthood sooner than I know it. On Sunday, we took a 2-hour boat ride around a part of Lake Lugano before saying good-bye to our beautiful taste of spring and Mediterranean life. Grazie mille, Lugano e Como!!
More photos from Lugano are available on the Photo Gallery page, and photos from Como can be seen on my new photo gallery page dedicated to International Travel!