Bella Italia!

Well, well, the world's most disorganised blogger is now finally recapping her trip to Lugano, if I can remember that far back!

Before I get to last weekend though, have to describe my swim in the Rhein last Thursday. It's one of the things I've really wanted to do since I arrived, and finally managed it last week, with my work clothes in my waterproof (actually did keep everything dry) bright orange bag, which also acts as a great buoyancy aid. We walked all the way down (sorry should say upriver) and then jumped in. It was very cold at first but then got used to the water and were warmed by the sun. It only took a little way to make it all the way down, under a couple of bridges, bobbing along in the current. It was relatively easy to jump out onto the bank when we reached mittlere brucke, and sat having an ice cream with the Basel locals drying off.

So, on Friday, we headed off to Lugano, which is in one of the two Italian speaking cantons, called Ticino, and is very close to the Italian border. It is surrounded by Alps, and is a very mountainous region even for Switzerland. Before jumping on the train, we had dinner at "Mister Wong", a buffet style Chinese restaurant by the station we seem to have become rather fond of in the last month. The train took about 4 hours, and we arrived in Lugano at 11 ish, and had a short walk to our hostel, the Montariano. It was very clean, and had a swimming pool, which we used on the Saturday evening, which was really good, but our sleep was interrupted by noisy guests, and leaves one a bit surly when you've been up at 6 during the week. The next morning we had time to properly explore the town. The hostel was at the top of the hill, and the town continued below. I've never been to Italy, but it had what I consider a very traditional Italian feel, with steep cobbled stone steps. Although it was raining a bit, we hired mountain bikes, and set off on a countryside journey to a town up in the mountains called Senvico. It didn't seem very steep, but was uphill all the way, and after 3 hours we reached just outside the town. Being completely parched, we stopped at a local restaurant for 3 bottles of sprite and a pizza (which defeated me, as I have to admit, I could only eat half of it). All the men were sitting around, drinking coffee while one waitress was having to serve all the customers (typical Italians). The way back was much easier, free wheeled all the way down to the town. After that in the evening went up by funicular to the top of Mount San Salvatore, which has an amazing view of all the surroundings, you could see Milan, and Lake Como and the rest of Lake Lugano. We had a more restful night on Saturday evening, and next morning had a nice coffee and cake at a local cafe. A trip on the boat was in store next and we headed for Gandria, a beautiful village on the Lake. We walked the route of olives and then had a lunch at a restaurant with a patio over the Lake. It was very Italian, with Virgin Mary statues along the narrow cobbled streets. We popped back on the boat and on to real Italy, a town called San Mamote, and climbed to the local church, where there was amazing views of the surroundings. Then we had pasta at a local restaurant and an ice cream on the seafront in Lugano. Monday was a day off to allow us to travel back to Basel, and we spent the morning going on the Noddy seaside train around Lugano and then visited a couple of local churches and the cathedral. After nearly losing the safe key we headed back to the train station, and saw the scenery of the William Tell pass, which we missed in the dark on Friday night.

This week I've also managed to watch Hotel Rwanda, a very thought provoking film, a couple of episodes of Gilmore Girls, and actually won two games of pool (very fluky)!

Hope your all well, photos will follow soon,

Swizzy