(CH)ICAGO ABROAD: Fight or Flight - Lake Lugano

Tree lined walking path along Lake Lugano with the city to the left, lake and low level mountain peaks to the right.

Let's see...where were we...ah yes, we had just finished two bottles of wine and I was making my way to the train station to greet the wife as we had a nearly three hour train ride to Lugano. Lugano is located in Southern Switzerland, in the Ticino region. Most people might know Lake Como, Lake Lugano is just northwest of Lake Como but on the Swiss side of the border. Lake Lugano actually flows into Italy as well but everyone that travels to Lugano prefers the nice and neat Swiss side of the lake. The wife and I were just happy to get out of Zurich and see a new city and some great scenery. Unfortunately we had to take the late train and it was too dark to do any sight seeing from the train. But at one point, I have no clue where we were, we were basically on a side of cliff overlooking nothing but bright city lights. I thought to myself that this would probably look wonderful in the morning.

When we arrived at our Hotel, Hotel De La Paix, we immediately uncorked a bottle of wine and toasted to Ticino! Another great thing about Switzerland is that you can pretty much drink anywhere you want. It's not uncommon to see two business professionals sharing a bottle of wine at lunch on a Tuesday or to see someone drinking a beer walking down the street. The only restriction is that you can't drink and drive and you can't be in the front passenger seat if you're drunk but other than that drink away which I think is pretty fair. In a town of 55,000 inhabitants 10pm is pretty late, but we set out to walk along the lake towards downtown Lugano.

Supposedly Lugano is the sunniest place in all of Switzerland. Some call it the Monte Carlo of Switzerland. For some strange reason bad weather has been following us for the past year or so. Our wedding weekend Atlanta was 45-50 F when the average typically is 70-75. I think Lugano was 10F lower than Zurich. But for us the weather really doesn't matter, we just walk and talk and take in the views. The first thing we saw besides the lake and mountain peaks was this:

Hotel Splendide - Pretty Dramatic and Daunting...look at the palm trees as well

As I mentioned earlier, Lugano is in the Ticino or Italian region of Switzerland. Switzerland is pretty much broken down into three regions: French, German, and Italian. My wife and I have been to Italy and we both felt like we were in Italy rather than Switzerland. Lugano has Piazzas instead of Platz' and a four story building in Lugano is much more dramatic and ornate than a four story building in Zurich. Very subtle differences but very large and important. And yes, they speak Italian in these parts as well.

Seeing that we were so lucky with the weather, we decided to test our Luck at CasinoLugano. It was probably the oddest scene that I have ever seen in my life (except for a half naked Italian opera singer). Maybe it's my american bravado, but when I step into a casino I pretty much think of loud obnoxious yelling and screaming something like "Vegas Baby, Yeah Vegas Baby!" or "Always bet on Black baby!" Well this place was like a library...very quiet very male dominated. The women were there but they usually stood behind the men holding their expensive hand bags. I really didn't notice it until my wife mentioned the library feel. I was too busy blowing through all my Swiss Francs and drinking the spirits while I yelled and screamed, "Lugano Baby, Yeah Lugano Baby!" and "Put it all on Black, let it roll!" I pretty much went bust in 30 minutes while my wife was up big...so the family was up! I spent the next hour or so blowing on chips and ushering drinks to the wife. Gentleman Luck is what they call me. The family being up, we decided to go home and prep for our day of walking and eating chocolate. Forgot to mention that small detail, there was Chocolate festival in Lugano this weekend.

These are the views that we couldn't see the previous night...

Peaks in the Background and that's the Lake

That's the Snow-Capped Alps over there.

The wife said my jacket wasn't stylish enough for Ticino...I dress for the weather not for Fashion

I think that's Lido, not Russia where Putin lives.

Along the way we ran into an old familiar friend....

Papa Georgio?!?!

Instead of just walking along the Lake, we decided to walk along side streets to hit up the Chocolate Fest. I'm not sure why they even sell Chocolate at the festival because they pretty much give enough free samples away to fill the tummy.

Taylor doing the not-so-secret sneak out, eating all the samples.

CHOCOLATE!

After the chocolate festival, we continued to walk along the path until we reached Parco Civico, which I think means Civic Park. It's actually pretty cool to have a a park sitting right along the Lake. The pictures don't do the park justice. I probably should have taken more pictures but then we would have had a Part 3, 4 and 5.