Hello dear travel lovers. I want to tell you about this beautiful city I visited during my Italy trip. Lake Lugano is located on the border of Italy and Switzerland. Right near it to its east and west, it has two neighbors that draw all the attention, massive lakes like Maggiore and Como. While Lugano remains quite modest next to them, the length of its shoreline is actually about 100 kilometers. Therefore, when you come, you will definitely find plenty of places to walk and swim here.

The easiest way to get to Lugano is to take a train from Milan Central Station. The important thing is to choose the Trenord company, so your ticket will cost only 16 euros instead of 32 euros on the standard Trenitalia train. The journey takes just over an hour. The second way is to use local trains if you are traveling within Switzerland.

As for me, I reached Lugano by a third way, by taking a bus departing from the small village of Grandola in Italy. I rented an apartment here for 4 nights for 300 euros. As you can guess, saving money was the main reason, but it was not the only one. The location here is ideal for visiting both lakes without having to change hotels. Overall I was quite satisfied with the apartment.

The location of the hotel turned out to be really interesting. The village is located in a valley between two lakes and is surrounded by high mountains. The views are incredibly impressive.

Lugano is the largest city outside of Italy's borders that speaks the language of Dante. Together with its surrounding settlements, its population is approximately 150.000 people. You will most likely start exploring the city from the train station or the bus terminal. These are located on a high hill and from here both the lake view and the first sight to see appear before you.

San Lorenzo Cathedral, the most important sanctuary of the entire Ticino region. The first church in Romanesque style was built at this point at an earlier period and the current structure was completed throughout the fifteenth century.

The most valuable part of the cathedral is its facade made of white limestone and Carrara marble. Just think, a true masterpiece of the Lombardy Renaissance completed more than 500 years ago. its construction year is 1517.

After visiting the cathedral, you can walk down towards the center through steep pedestrian streets. An important tip, if you want to go back up to the cathedral or down from the train station to the historic city center, you can use the local funicular. The fee is only 1.3 francs. If you keep your hotel in Lugano, you can travel completely free throughout the entire Ticino canton. You are given a Ticino Ticket at the hotel and except for the large funiculars, you can use all public transportation within the canton, which is quite extensive, for free.

We went down to the main square of the city. As you can see, if you did not know you were in Switzerland, you would never guess you were outside of Italy by looking at its architecture and street layout. Colorful houses, stones on the ground and narrow streets opening up to Piazza della Riforma. The square takes its name from the constitution of 1830. Ticino became one of the first Swiss cantons to guarantee the separation of powers, freedom of the press and the right to vote for citizens with its constitution.

The main ornament of the square is the Palazzo Civico, built in the middle of the nineteenth century. There is a very interesting story about its construction. The new secular administration first bought the building of the episcopal palace and the adjacent church, demolished them and then started the construction of the town hall at this exact spot. So this was a hugely important symbolic step. We are establishing a secular and libertarian state, from now on the church cannot interfere in the politics of our city. They even carved the inscription Built with the money of the citizens on its facade.

But we headed towards the street named Via Nassa, which came alive with the money of us tourists. This is the main shopping artery housing the stores of almost all famous brands. At the end of Via Nassa is the church housing the most famous fresco from the Renaissance period in Switzerland.

The temple was built in the late fifteenth century in memory of surviving a plague outbreak. The real treasure of the church is the frescoes of Bernardino Luini, a student of Leonardo da Vinci. The master's most important masterpiece is the massive fresco covering the entire middle transverse wall of the church. More than 150 figures, including mounted Roman soldiers, angels and a crowded group of people, are detailed upon it. Unfortunately, since the interior of the church is not very well lit, it was quite difficult to photograph and convey this splendor nicely. However, there was no such problem on its exterior. Moreover, its main facade faces directly onto Lugano's main cordon, the massive cordon stretching right along the edge of the water.

The great thing is that red benches are placed all along the cordon. So I think everyone can find a place to sit. Maybe there are not peaks as high here as the ones in Garda or the mountains we saw while traveling in Thun, Lake Thun and Interlaken. But to me, the real magic of Lake Lugano and the views opening up from here lies in the quite rugged and changeable structure of the terrain. You look and see a massive hill, followed by mountains stretching backwards and opening up again in the background. That is why the view is very impressive and unusual. And there are lush green hills. Really an impressive beauty. When a nice architecture is added to this, it becomes wonderful.

I remember being incredibly impressed walking by the water at the end of the first day. The lake, the mountains, the flowers, that atmosphere. Some people prefer just to watch and some are like me. When I see something unique, my first thought is not just to take a photo, but to call someone and say You cannot believe it or send a photo to the chat.  

Then came the time to go up to the mountains. We set out towards one of the most impressive viewing terraces to look at the lake from a point higher than 900 meters. This is Mount Monte Bre, at the foothills of which Lugano is established. You can use the funicular to get to the summit but be prepared for Swiss prices 26 francs. If you are staying in Lugano, you get a 30 percent discount. A nice advantage but still quite expensive.

We went up as far as the village of Bre. From here wonderful views begin and you find the opportunity to walk in narrow streets. However, we climbed directly towards the main panoramic point. To tell the truth, I did not expect such a steep slope here. The views are definitely very nice, but believe me it is not easy at all.

The village of Bre remained on our left side. We went quite a bit above it. The village is famous above all for its location. Not because there are such incredible historical houses, but entirely because of its view. The lake stretches far away and at the end there is a small town named Porlezza. And that place is now within the borders of Italy. Definitely come up here but if long and steep climbs challenge you, you can prefer the funicular instead of the bus.

To avoid having to climb an extra 300 steps, we needed to turn towards the restaurant at the fork in the road, meaning to the left. Because the road going to the right leads to the funicular and a small church. The church is not considered very noteworthy, it is not worth going up just for it and we do not need the funicular. Therefore, from here we either turned left again and continued from the vehicle road or from this path. The vehicle road is a bit more comfortable, the gradient difference is slightly less. The important thing is not to turn right. Otherwise you will spend effort for nothing, climbing about 200 to 300 steps and then having to go down again. Therefore we proceeded either from the path or the vehicle road.

It looks like the steep climb was only at the very beginning of the road. What followed was a quite flat path lasting about 15 minutes. And right in front of us was that famous Mount San Salvatore with an altitude of 912 meters. There was a slight mist and haze but still how impressive. Right below us the city of Lugano stretched out.

I will continue telling my Lugano memories in my subsequent posts. See you soon.