 |
| We exited the train in the city of Lugano and walked |
| downhill through the old part of town, toward the lake. |
 |
| Wandering the narrow streets, gazing into the storefronts, |
| it was difficult to imagine that the inhabitants of this place |
| were Swiss, as most spoke exclusively Italian and displayed |
| typically Italian character traits. It felt like a foreign country! |
 |
| Only small delivery vehicles were allowed in the inner city. |
 |
| Ron, below the city center, on the shoreline of Lake Lugano. The lake forms one |
| border with Italy, and the mountain range in the background lies within Italy. |
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| Irmi, strolling through a park along the lakefront. The entire area is a free wireless "hot zone," |
| so, while Irmi forged ahead, I sat on one of the benches in the background and powered up my |
| iPhone to view the results of the previous day's baseball games back home in the United States. |
 |
| The park contained many square acres of manicured lawns and gardens. |
 |
| The gate to nowhere. A striking setting, and beautifully crafted, but functionally useless. |
 |
| Lovely Irmi posing before a placid Lake Lugano. |
 |
| Boarding a local bus, we traveled twenty minutes to the small town of Ascona, |
| situated on Lake Maggiore and surrounded on three sides by steep hillsides. |
 |
| Ascona projects pure Mediterranean charm, with a laid-back atmosphere, soft |
| pastel colored buildings, sunny outdoor restaurants and shoreline promenade. |
 |
| With the promenade to the right, and restaurants just out of sight beyond that, the hill in the |
| distance is THE preferred location for a vacation apartment; however, the structures are built |
| so steeply that driveways and garages are architecturally impossible. Cars are parked in small |
| niches carved from the roadside, and owners walk to their apartments down steep staircases. |
 |
|
Boats available for hire, with a small private marina in the background. |
 |
| Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those are palm trees . . . in Switzerland. |
 |
| As in many other locales, watching the sun set is akin to a national sport. |
 |
| Deeper into town, we happened upon this secluded entrance to someone's home. |
 |
| The stonework of this church, against a starkly contrasting azure sky, caught Irmi's artistic fancy. |
 |
| With mountain shadows lengthening, we boarded a bus for Locarno, |
| the third major city in the area, for one last hectic hour of sightseeing. |
 |
| With our return train to Zürich scheduled to depart shortly, we hustled two blocks to Lake |
| Maggiore and snapped one last photo to capture the end of a great day and save it forever. |
