Why Lugano feels like Italy (but it's Switzerland)

Every year family comes to visit us in Switzerland, and every year we take them somewhere they have not been. This time it was the Italian part. We enjoyed a morning in Zürich, left in the afternoon, and by evening we were in Lugano, in a corner of the country that looks, sounds and eats like Italy. It is not Italy. It is the canton of Ticino, and it is still Switzerland.

Lugano curls around a deep arm of Lake Lugano, with steep wooded mountains dropping straight into the water. The signs are in Italian, the conversations are in Italian, there are palm trees on the lakefront, and in the evening people stroll along it as seriously as anywhere south of the border. We did too.

It is so Italian here that there is, literally, a piece of Italy in the middle of it. Across the water sits Campione d'Italia, an Italian town entirely surrounded by Swiss territory. I had always wanted to set foot in it, so we made the quick detour. There is not much to see, just a huge casino, but I am glad I ticked it off the list.

Our ritual is Monte Brè, the mountain above the eastern side of the city, at sunset. We drove all the way up to the car park and walked out to the viewpoint for the last of the light. It is one of my favourite places in Lugano, and it rewards you every single time. The restaurant at the top was still open, and it served us apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce. Mediterranean view, Alpine dessert. That is the tell.

The next morning we parked in Lugano and caught the ferry from Paradiso out to Gandria, a small village stacked up the slope on the far shore. The boat ride on Lake Lugano is always one of the highlights of a visit, and Gandria itself does not take long. Then back on the ferry, into the cars, and on the road.

Come for a weekend and let Lugano fool you.