Lugano - Gem of Southern Switzerland

Lugano (http://www.lugano-tourism.ch) is the largest city in the Ticino region and the third largest banking city in Switzerland. It is blessed with a beautiful lakeside location, warm weather, and natural beauty. It has become a popular destination for conferences as well as sun-seeking tourists who enjoy the many spas and luxury hotels in the area.

Due to its topography, Lugano has often been called the "Rio of Europe." When you think Switzerland, the idea of palm trees doesn’t spring easily to mind, but that’s what you’ll find here. The city has a variety of museums and historical buildings to explore, as well as shops, parks, and one of the few casinos in Switzerland.

Admire the Renaissance glory of Cattedrale San Lorenzo. Discover the frescos of the medieval Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angioli. Explore the narrow cobblestone lanes of the old city. Window-shop along the Via Nassa, with its hip and trendy shops. Take the water taxi to Gandria or the Italian enclave of Campione.

Are sports more your style? Take a hike around the lake to one of the small villages that seem to rise vertically from the waters of the lake. Indulge in golf or horseback riding or catch a hockey game. Catch some air at the city skate park or paraglide from one of the nearby peaks.

When your day is done, treat yourself to the ultimate Ticino experience – dinner in the grotto restaurants that pepper the region. Originally the grottos were caves or small buildings built into mountainsides, which families would use to cure and store cheese, wine, meats, etc., often sharing the grotto with another family or families. The men would go together to fetch the vittles, and instead would end up chatting and eating together, a tradition that eventually involved into a family activity. Traditional grottos serve cold cuts, cheese, fruit, nuts (chestnuts and walnuts are very popular in this area), polenta (a dish made from ground corn), and spirits such as wine, grappa, and nicino (a local nut liquor). Today if you visit a grotto, you will find these traditional dishes, but you may also find them serving minestrone soup or local hot dish specialties. No visit to the Ticino region, Lugano in particular, would be complete without a visit to a grotto.

 

Quick Tips:

The easiest way to explore the old city is to take the funicolare (CHF1.10 [.85]) from Piazzo Cioccaro up to the main train station. From here you can cross the street and then wander down the twisty cobblestone streets. Make your first stop the Cattedrale San Lorenzo. Then turn left from the front steps and follow the Via San Lorenzo to the Via Cattedrale on your right, which will lead you past a variety of funky shops.

Enjoy a coffee before diving into the tangle of pedestrian-only streets. Cross the piazza and turn right down Via Pessina, which will become the luxury shopping street Via Nassa, which also leads you across the old town to Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angioli. Not too far beyond this medieval church is the Museo d’Arte Moderna (Riva Caccia 5), giving an interesting pair of contrasts.

Stroll back along the waterfront under the chestnut trees past the ornate Palazzo Civico (city hall) and the Museo Catonale d’Arte; see the statue of William Tell across the street from the casino at the gates to the Parco Civico and end up with a stop at the Museo Civici di Belle Arti.

Best Way To Get Around:

Lugano regional transport, like all Swiss cities, is well integrated with a system of trains, buses, funicolare, cable cars, and water taxis. You can buy a multi-day pass for CHF72/3 days () or CHF96/week (). You can buy the passes at hotels, train stations, tourism offices, and other transportation companies. (If you have a SwissPass, it covers most regional transport as well).

Lugano is only 1 hour by train from Milan, Italy, or 2 hours and 40 minutes from Zurich. Lugano is also served by the regional Lugano-Agno Airport, which has daily connections to Zürich, Geneva, and Venice.

The historic Continental Parkhotel Lugano enjoys an enviable position on the hillside above Lugano, outstanding commanding views of the lake, and beautiful gardens, including a working vineyard in the hotel grounds.

The Continental consists of two buildings, the main building and annex. The annex building has the Beauregard-style rooms, which, renovated in 1999, include all the amenities of the "standard" rooms in the main building, plus a minifridge and air-conditioning. All rooms include a single or double bed, TV, direct-dial phone, and a shower or bath. The other main difference between the rooms are the views: the annex has limited views, while the main building offers either views of the lake and Lugano or the gardens. Reasonable room rates range from CHF90 to 115 ($70-$89).

Arriving in Lugano by train, I found that the Continental is very close to the station - turn right out the front of the station and walk about 200m south. The hotel is on the hillside across the street and the train tracks, with the entrance marked with an ornate painted iron gate. When the windows are shut, I didn't really notice the trains going by (and they were frequent during the day and continued into the night), but if you are a sensitive sleeper, you may want to request a park-view room.

The room was clean and tidy, with two double beds pushed together to form a queen-size bed - this is common in Switzerland. If TV is important to you (it's not for me), the TV is small. The bathroom had a nice big bathtub, but the side of the tub was high, so if you're motion-challenged, you'll want to ask for a room with a shower instead.

The staff was very warm and welcoming, spoke good English, and was very knowledgeable when asked about the area.

Breakfast is included in the room price; it is served downstairs in a dining room that commands lovely views of the lake and includes cereals, yogurt, fruit, breads, juices, coffee, and more. If you are hungry later in the day, the hotel also has a bar outside by the swimming pool in warmer weather that serves light fare and drinks and a bar, and from May to September you can enjoy a prix-fixe menu at the Ticino-style grotto Ronco dei Bianchi (http://www.roncodeibianchi.com/), which serves the bianco merlot created right on the hotel grounds.

Live entertainment is offered weekly. Guests are welcome to explore the gardens behind the hotel, and there is a lovely pool to cool off in warm weather.

I would readily stay at the Continental Parkhotel again.

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Note: A lot of the taxi drivers at the train station will not make the short drive to the hotel if the weather is good, so if your luggage is heavy or you have a lot of it, you may need to ask a few drivers before you find one willing to take the short fare.

Traditional grotto (or grotti) are family-run caves or locations in the woods where they would cure and store cheese, meats, spirits, etc. Today, there are restaurants in the heart of villages or cities in Ticino that call themselves grotto and are not true grotto.

Grotto Morchino (http://www.morchino.ch/), on the lower slopes of Monte San Salvatore to the west of Lugano, is a very traditional grotto. Its history goes back many years, including a mention in Hermann Hesse's 1919 novel Klingsors letzter Sommer (Klingsor's Last Summer).

During the warmer months, you can enjoy your meals in the woods surrounding the restaurant; in cool weather, it is wonderful to sit inside by the fireplace and enjoy the company, tasty regional specialties, and a nice glass of wine. It's a very popular spot; it was packed when we arrived around 8pm on a Saturday evening.

A good way to start is with a sampler plate of cold cuts. Ticino is well-known for its salamis, and they are very tasty. There was one item on the plate that I first thought was cheese but realized quickly that it was not. (My tour guide the next day was able to tell me that it was a very popular local delicacy that is basically a salted fat product, usually served with warm bread so that it will melt as you spread it.)

From there, we moved on to traditional dishes of polenta (a dish made from ground corn) and risotto (a type of pasta), some kind of roast pork, and a very good braised beef dish. The dishes are all very hearty and satisfying.

To top the meal off, we had shots of nocino, which is a local strong nut liquor. I'm not used to drinking shots, so I found it powerful, but the flavor was really good, and I think I could develop a taste for it.

Nocino is a very traditional Italian cordial. Young walnuts are picked on the Festival Day of St. John on June 24 . Recipes vary, although the one thing they can all seem to agree upon is that you should use 30 walnuts for each liter of alcohol and use lots of sugar. One recipe I heard was that the walnuts are crushed and soaked in a combination of grappa, coffee beans, cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar; other variants I found included ingredients such as orange, cloves, and juniper. The jar is then placed in sunlight for 40 days, and there are further steps in the preparation before the fresh batches are revealed in time for Christmas. It is excellent over ice cream!

The staff of Grotto Morchino was friendly and the service was excellent. If you're looking for a true grotto experience, I would recommend making the trip--it is only a 10-minute drive from the main train station.

One of the most picturesque villages around Lake Lugano is the tiny enclave of Gandria, located just a short distance east of Lugano. Previously it was only possible to reach Gandria via foot or by boat, but a new roadway runs along the hillside above the village, connecting Lugano to Lake Como in Italy. It is also possible to take the funiculore from Cassarate to the hilltop village Bré, and stroll down the hillside to Gandria.

You can reach Gandria by foot in about 90 minutes - a leisurely stroll along the lake around the foot of Bré that will take you past the lovely Sentiero dei Fiori (Path of Flowers), the Parco e sentiero dell'olivo (Park of Olives) and the very wealthy Castagnola district. The houses and the gardens along the lakefront path are just lovely - but don't worry, if you take the water taxis, you'll still have a good view of this area. The water taxis take approximately 1/2 hour and make a couple stops between the main Lugano dock and Gandria; during the summer hours, the water taxis run frequently, but in the winter they run only a few times per week. Check ferry schedules carefully before setting out.

There are no cars in the village itself, however - the houses are practically piled atop one another on the steep hillside, a jumbled collection of pastel and white-painted buildings, connected by narrow alleys and lots of steps. Restaurants and local shops specializing in hand-crafted goods populate the village. Around 200 people live here year-round; locals call it “the place where time stopped.” The village faces south, onto the lake, and most of the restaurants here take advantage of the gorgeous views. In the summer, the village can get quite crowded - there are several restaurants here, and it is a popular day trip from Lugano.

Even in the off-season, however, the town has a sleepy, peaceful charm, allowing for unhurried meandering and discovery. Some of the older houses in Gandria still bear original frescoes and decorations. You can make the climb up to the church of St. Vigilio (Chiesa di S. Vigilio) to see its Baroque interior and late medieval campanile. Since there is no traffic, it is so quiet and tranquil here that you relax to the sounds of birds, wind in the flowers, the lake lapping the shore.

There is only one hotel in Gandria, situated at the eastern end of the village: the Hotel Moosmann ca del Lago (www.hotel-moosmann-gandria.ch), open April-October, rooms CHF51-218/person ($39-165) depending on occupancy/views. The hotel has parking available just off the road which runs above the village; the parking lot is approximately 100m from the hotel.

The spire of Cattedrale San Lorenzo, located on the Via San Lorenzo below the main train station, is viewable from nearly anywhere in the city. It it just a few minutes walk from either the town center or the station.

The church of San Lorenzo has had historical references as a parish as early as 818. The current building dates to the 13th century, although it has only held 'cathedral' status for the past 117 years. The original Romanesque building has undergone several restorations and reconstructions over its 700+ year history to evolve into the church we see today.

The façade of the cathedral dates to the very early 16th century, and is considered a masterpiece of renaissance Lombardic art. It includes a rose window and extensive carvings around the doorways, which depict saints and various events from the Bible as well as notable Renaissance scholars. From the terrace here, there are wonderful views across the old city and the lake.

When you enter the building, what strikes you first is the brilliant use of color. Unlike the Protestant cantons to the north, Ticino has remained a largely Catholic region, and the churches of this region were not stripped of ornamentation as they were elsewhere in the country. Cattedrale San Lorenzo therefore is a wonderful textbook of artistic styles from the past thousand years. Although the original building has been reconstructed and incorporated into the building that became the current cathedral, the central pillars of the present-day church date from the original building, and you can inspect the 13th and 14th century frescoes painted there.

The rest of the interior is a blend of medieval, baroque and rococo, including a 1632 altarpiece by Giovanni Baptist Carloni of Rovio. The stone tabernacle dates to 1500, and the oldest baptimal font in the building (north chapel) was created in 1430. The two baptismal fonts by the main doors date to the 16th century, as does the lovely organ. The marble high altar is 17th century work, and the allegorical frescoes that decorate the choir are the work of the Torricelli brothers in 1764. There is a lot of artwork to be seen here, and the church is well worth a visit.

Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angioli (St. Maria of the Angels Church, c.1490) stands where the chic Via Nassa meets Riva Via Vela, an outwardly-nondescript medieval church that has occupied this prime location facing Lago di Lugano for over 500 years.

Do not let the somewhat plain exterior fool you; while it is simple stone on the outside; inside, it's dynamic. The church was built in the 15th century, with the frescoes completed around 1530 by a Lombard painter named Bernardino Luini. Relatively little about the painter's life is known. Although Luini was thought to have been a student of Leonardo da Vinci, no direct evidence of such a relationship has been found. Whether or not he was a student of da Vinci, Luini was clearly very influenced by him, as seen in his use of bright, warm colors and his delicate female figures and their use of subtle gestures and clear emotion. In fact, because many of Luini's major works were in smaller towns, and since his work resembles da Vinci's, much of his work was attributed to da Vinci for many years. Extensive research has been able to identify Luini's work and establish him as a noteworthy contemporary of da Vinci's; he is sometimes called "the Raphael of Lombardy."

Luini originally came to Lugano on commission to paint a Last Supper for the Franciscan monestery that once was attached to the church. The monestary is long-gone; its building was converted to a hotel in the 1800s. The hotel eventually closed and the building fell into disrepair; it is now being restored and converted into something different. Luini's Last Supper can still be seen hanging on the west wall of St. Maria's.

It is rather breathtaking to enter the church, and see the magnificent scene of the Crucifixtion (1529) that covers the entire wall which separates the nave and the choir. Indeed, this fresco - likely Luini's masterpiece - is one of the largest single frescos ever painted, and one of his last major works. Several smaller frescos can be seen throughout the church, included the repeated crest that looks like "yhs" in a sun motif, and the rendering of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus. My guide was extremely well-versed in knowledge of the church and she had a lot of interesting information to share about each of the artworks.

Light inside the church is dim, to help preserve the paintings, so it is ideal to go on a bright day, when light from the clerestory windows will give you the best views. If the light is not enough, however, there is a switch on the left wall near the entrance that will turn on the lights on a short timer so that you can study the frescos a bit better.

The east side of the church includes chapels dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to St. Francis of Assisi.

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For more information: Lugano Turismo, Lugano Turismo, Tel. +41 (0) 91 913 32 32 (www.lugano-tourism.ch).