Saturday 19 October 2019 - Returning home from Lugano

It was raining! We were up at 9am for a shower and then breakfast. There was only one spare table! I had my usual muesli with yogurt, orange juice, coffee, plus boiled egg, gipfeli and blackcurrant jam. Yummy!

Cloudy over the Gross Mythen

Back in our room, we finished packing. The trains leave Lugano at 4 minutes past the hour. Unfortunately, we just missed one, so we got another train to Bellinzona, then on to Rotkreuz, and Zug. The trains were very full today but we managed to get seats. Everywhere in Switzerland looked very green.

In Thalwil, we caught the bus home and went to do some food shopping, before catching up with Pointless Celebrities and Strictly Come Dancing. A very pleasant short break!

Friday 18 October 2019 - Churches and Galleries

Inside San Lorenzo

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel again. They had hard-boiled eggs plus nice muesli, yogurts, gipfeli and jams. Plus coffee and orange juice. Then as it looked to be a dull day, we decided to visit the Cathedral and the newly-modernised art gallery by the lake.


First we took the number 2 bus to the station, where I bought another postcard, and then we walked down to the San Lorenzo cathedral with its tall square tower. We looked inside at the Baroque interior and took a few pictures.

The Last Supper triptych in Santa Maria dei Angeli

Then we continued down the path to another church, the Santa Maria dei Angeli, which contained colourful frescoes and a triptych of the Last Supper, which I studied on my OU Art History course.

The modern MASI / Lac gallery looks very chic now

After that, we continued along the lakeside to the Masi Lugano/LAC arts building with its streamlined architecture. We bought tickets to the art gallery which had 'sublime' Alpine paintings by Segantini and others. There was one Turner watercolour which was the nicest thing in there. We also saw works by William Wegman, a US photographer who had done a weird series of dogs in costume, called 'Being Human'.


Then we had a coffee, and lunch at La Cucina di Alice - we enjoyed Merlot Castanar and I had vitello tonnato and creme brulee with rapsberries - delicious. We headed back to our room at Hotel Delfino for a rest.

The civic gardens with autumnal colours

In the early evening, we took the bus to Parco Civili-Ciani, the lovely park by the lake. The trees were in their autumn colours.

In the gardens with the lake behind

After a stroll, we headed to La Tinera, a restaurant downstairs that Richard discovered. We were lucky to get a table. We ate minestrone soup, and I had salmon with rice and veg, while Richard had perch with risotto. We also had a bottle of  Lugana white wine from Lake Garda.




We returned to our hotel by funicular and bus, and I had a coffee with grappa in the bar. Another lovely day.

Thursday 17 October 2019, San Salvatore and Lago Lugano

At the top of the cablecar at San Salvatore

On our first full day, we took advantage of the fine weather. After breakfast at our hotel, which had quite a good choice, we took our nearest bus, number 2, to Paradiso and then it was a short walk to the funicular station for Monte San Salvatore. With our GAs, we paid half price for the return trip. We took our seats in the front cabin. There was a steep ascent to the top, at 882 metres.

From the church roof, we had an even better view all round

We walked round, took lots of photos, and then climbed a path to the 912 metre summit. We also visited the little church and climbed up to its roof. From here we took lots more photos of the panoramic view. We could see the motorway bridge to Italy, the surrounding mountains and the lake of Lugano on the Swiss side. It was quite spectacular. There was also a small museum, with relics and rocks from millions of years back.

On a boat from Paradiso to Gandria - sunny

After seeing everything, we took the next funicular down to Paradiso, From there we walked down to the lake, and got straight onto a boat trip to Gandria and Lugano. The pleasant boat trip lasted an hour and we had great views all round the small villages.


Back in Lugano, we had a pizza at Restaurant Mary. I had a capricciosa with artichokes, ham, olives and cheese, with two glasses of pale white Merlot from Ticino.It was all very tasty. Then we walked to the funicular to go to the station, from where we took a bus 2 to our hotel. I bought some postcards.

In the square we could see Restaurant Olimpia while we had wine

In the evening, we went down to Sass Cafe in the square we used to visit, near our old favourite, Ristorante Olimpia. We had some white Merlot with an appetiser of cheese, bread and olives. It was very pleasant.

Wednesday 16 October 2019 - Setting off!

We got the old black suitcase out, looked at our packing list that we always print out and collected our holiday clothes for a three-night stay. We hoped the weather would be mild and sunny, but we packed jumpers and umbrellas just in case.

We also checked all our TV recordings during our absence and watered the balcony plants. We only needed to take Swiss currency, and our phones with Google Maps to find the bus routes and funiculars. We had already checked our train timetable on the SBB website.

Arriving at Lugano station

We caught the bus and then the 11.14 train from Thalwil to Zug. However, there was a 20 minute delay. So we took a train from Zug to Arth-Goldau, hoping to catch an earlier train to Lugano. But we ended up staying on that train, through the Gotthard Tunnel, to Bellinzona and then on to Lugano. At least we had seats and it was sunny.

In Lugano by the lake

At the station in Lugano, we hung around waiting for a number 2 bus which arrived in 25 minutes. It took us to Hotel Delfino, where we checked in. We had booked for a double room only, but in the end we had breakfast there anyway, as there was nowhere handy nearby.


Then we walked down to the lake, where we walked along to the Lido and stopped for a beer. Before heading back to the hotel, we found a cafe for coffee and cake.We had a rest at the hotel before going out in search of dinner.

Enjoying dinner at Soave 10

We took the bus and funicular down to the town centre and found Ristorante Soave 10 which looked nice, and we got a table inside. I had delicious tomato soup, followed by risotto ai porcini. We also enjoyed a bottle of Piemonte Red - a dry blend of Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Barbera. It was all delicious but we felt rather tired afterwards.