The village of Ascona on the banks of Lago Maggiore
claims the mildest climate in Switzerland. It is
also one of the country’s most exclusive tourist
destinations. It was built around the 16th century
church of SS. Pietro e Paolo. And the town’s many
Ristorante Locanda
sidewalk cafes are great for people watching while
Gandriese is an
sipping coffee.
excellent choice for
Between 1885 and 1928, the Baroness Antoinette
lunch or dinner in
Gandria.
Saint-Leger planted a botanical garden she envisioned
as an earthy paradise and her successor, department store
king Max Emden, continued her work, adding a neo-
classical villa to the mix. Now a public park, and amidst
the country’s mildest climate, the gardens display an
amazing variety of plants from Himalayan cinnamon
to an agave common to Mexico’s Chihuahuan desert. Emden’s former villa now serves as the park’s administrative centre
with a cafe on the front verandah that serves up a devastating array of ice cream and pastries.
On our return to Lugano, we spiral up the mountainside above Locarno for a view of Lake Maggiori’s principal
city with its pretty piazzas, colourful gardens and the dramatically situated church of Madonna del Sasso with its attendant
Capuchin monastery, famous as a pilgrimage stop going back to 1480.
On the final day of our Ticino getaway, the wives win out, taking it upon themselves to organise a hotel car to
take them to ritzy Via Nassa, the colonnaded main shopping street of Lugano. I even join in the fray, purchasing a new
battery for my Swiss Army watch, but I also spend a long time perusing the remarkable displays of food, largely meats
and cheeses, at the Italian deli Gabbani, just off Piazza della Riforma. I would have been happy with a ham and cheese
sandwich on the spot but we had booked lunch in Gandria, another of the cutesie lakeside villages just a quick boat ride
from Lugano.
It is once again a Mediterranean moment as we savour a lunch of fresh greens, four-cheese pasta and fine local
Merlot on the lakefront verandah of Ristorante Locanda Gandriese. Noticing that the restaurant is part of a small hotel, I
For more information, visit www.ticino-tourism.ch pocket a card from reception. Already, I am plotting a return visit to this sunny little slice of Italy in the south of Switzerland.o
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