Let‘s start with some general data. Switzerland is a very small country in Central Europe – you have to multiply its area by 328,5 times to have the area of the USA, or by 340 to have the area of Canada.
Ok- now let me remind you of the title of this piece -southern Switzerland - and think of how often you have read something about southern Switzerland (or Ticino, as it is called). I mean, my country is so small, how can someone describe a small part of something already tiny? Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, let me inform you that you are wrong. I can and I will.
The British-Hungarian satirist George Mikes once wrote in a book called "Switzerland for Beginners" that Switzerland is the largest country in the world. He was right. Think of any large country you know well (e.g. Canada or America), then think of all its different ethnic varieties and regional differences and compare them with Switzerland. We Swiss have more – therefore we win logically. Thus, our country must be larger than yours.
So what are our differences? I‘ll just mention one as an example: we don‘t have our own national language (Swiss does not exist) but we have 4 languages that our government designated as national languages: German, French, Italian and Reto-Romanic. The same government, however, designated German, French and Italian as official languages but decided that Reto-Romanic is not an official one. It’s still a national one. Pretty confusing, right?
I was born and raised in a small village in Southern Switzerland, in the Italian speaking area (a relatively large area with a small population), and due to the obvious language barrier, we share more affinities with neighbouring Italy rather than with the rest of our country. As I said before, we all speak Italian here, our diet is based on Italian food only (meaning pasta and pizza galore), we study Italian history at school, we wear Italian clothes, we talk with our hands, we‘re hot tempered, and we are all born Roman Catholic. Yet, call us Italian only if you want to offend us deeply. We are true Swiss people – we only talk, look, eat, study and pray like the Italians – so don‘t mix us up. Pretty confusing, right? Don‘t worry – even the rest of Switzerland is confused over us. They don’t know what to make of us so, as a rule of thumb, they simply ignore us.
By some twist of fate, even our region (Ticino) looks different than the rest of Switzerland. Foreigners who visit Switzerland go home and tell tales of breathtaking mountains, pristine lakes, old wooden cottages, cities selling chocolate, cheese, watches and army knives at every corner. It‘s all true– there! Here, it is not! Foreigners come to Switzerland to see that, because that is their exotic image of Switzerland. After all, why not? I went to the Grand Canyon and New York – my exotic representation of the USA. It‘s exactly the same story.
Here, it‘s a different story. In general only Swiss tourists come and spend some time in Ticino – they too like exotic places - and they have one right at their doorstep. What‘s handier than that? They don‘t need a passport to travel, no confusing foreign currency to worry about (it works in the same way as at home), public transportation is reliable like in the rest of the country and, especially, they will not have to take the trouble to speak or learn a foreign language. We Ticinesi are very obliging – we have to learn all their languages at school – so we let them communicate in their own language.
To make things easier, in the summer months– when hoards of our country-fellows come visit us- in the most tourist destinations we forget our language altogether, so they can feel at home. Therefore from late fall to early spring, in my favourite coffee-shop in Locarno, I order my coffee and croissant in Italian to the waiter Gerardo, while during the rest of the year (in the same coffee-shop – Gerardo still being the waiter) I order coffee and croissant generally in German and at times, even in French.
Well, what does southern Switzerland have that attracts so many domestic tourists? We don‘t have impressive high mountains – but the small ones we have are equally beautiful and challenging to hike (Adula and Basodino for example). The weather is very warm (yes, like in Italy) and the vegetation is a bit Mediterranean too. We have lots of palm trees, as well as the more Swiss-like pine-tree woods. There are several old fishing villages (Morcote, Gandria) and country markets and fairs all over. Our typical houses are mainly made of stone (Vallemaggia) and we grow grapes which make excellent red wines.
Ticino has also been the home of many famous artists and architects, both past (e.g. Domenico Fontana, who erected that nice big pillar in Saint Peter‘s square in Rome) and present (Mario Botta, who built the ugly new museum of modern art in San Francisco), so for such a rural area there is a very large and remarkable cultural patrimony to be visited. Many towns and villages have beautifully decorated houses and old arcades which play host to daily markets (Locarno, Ascona). Some towns have beautiful medieval castles, too, like Bellinzona, our tiny capital city.
There are also lots of rivers which often break up into natural pools, and one of our favourite past-times is to go swimming there. We have a few ski-resorts, but nothing of the mundane kind and entertainment and nightlife aren’t exactly exciting if you exclude the odd jazz or film festival. There’s a feeling of familiarity and simplicity all over and among the people that I would not swap for anywhere else in my country or the world.