Ticino

At the end of September we made the journey

to Ticino. Ticino is the Italian speaking part of Switzerland.

It is really quite strange - you go into the Gotthard tunnel

with all German road signs and 9.3 miles later you pop out

to all Italian road signs. Only in Switzerland! This is a

shot of Lugano.

Lugano is a Swiss town with an Italian flavor. It is built on the shores

of Lake Lugano with the peaks of San Salvatore and Monte Bre looming

opposite sides of town. Here we are with newly snow dusted peaks behind us.

Yes, it is snowing in the mountains in September already.

We had to take a picture of the beautiful pink palace.

There was a wedding party taking photos there.

Talk about an amazing back drop for that couple!

The beautiful garden along the lake.

I liked the tree with the puff balls!

While in Ticino we decided to pop over the border to

Lake Como, Italy. There is tons of construction all

along the lake front so there were no pretty pictures

for now. However, I could have done some serious shopping

in town. Derek and my dad would have been bored out of their

minds so I spared them and decided to eat instead.

This is for Shaun! A very funny sign outside of our hotel.

Drake and I outside of the hotel. You don't really think

of palm trees in Switzerland. But we are in Ticino - Switzerland's

best kept secret!

Ahhhhhhh, sun! We found it! this is the beautiful view

from our hotel.

This is the hotel where we stayed. One of Derek's co-worker's

families owns and runs it. They were so welcoming and helpful with Drake.

They let us have a huge table every night for dinner that we could pull

the buggy right up to. The restaurant was amazing. It has a Michelin star

and deserves more! I had the best fillet of pork that I have ever had. And the wine

selection was great. We had Ticinese wine every night. We will be back!

Drake is taking in some rays! Gotta teach him early!

Another view from the hotel. We are in Ronco a small

town located on Lake Maggiore. Gorgeous!

Another picture of the hotel. This was the beautiful terrace

covered with grape vines over looking the lake.

The next day it was on to Bellinzona. Another one of

Derek's co-workers grew up here and said we had to go

to see the castles.

Same photo!

How very Swiss!

This is in the city center of Bellinzona with the castle looming

over the city. There are actually 3 castles but this was the only

one we could take the buggy into.

Another day we decided to drive up into the mountains. and

when I say up I mean UP! Good thing it was during the day.

Even Derek said he would not want to be on those roads at night.

Anyway, along our drive we spotted this bridge. It was really scary

for those like me that hate bridges. It was probably a bizillion years old

but only the fact that the Swiss made it got me to cross halfway across.

If you notice there are no guard rails the sides only go up to Derek's knees.

Look at how clean the water is. You can drink right out of it

as you can from any public fountain in Switzerland. Rumor

has it that our tap water is better than bottled water.

So, this was the tiny town at the summit. It took forever to get

to bit it was worth it. The drive was the best part. It was freezing

up here and as you can see the snow was not far away. The town is famous

for still baking bread in a stone oven. We could not find the bread but there

were a bunch of tourist groups there. It was literally like something out of

Hansel and Gretel.

What would a trip to the Italian part of Switzerland be

without pizza? Yum yum.

Look twins!

All in all we had a great trip. It was a part of the world that I

never knew much about and it was like being in a different

world but still being in Switzerland. It had all the great food and

wine from Italy while still being clean, efficient and precise - very Swiss.

Love to all,

Leah, Derek and Drake