Today we leave Florence and head to Lugano. We will go via Bologna, famous for Spaghetti Bolognese. The sidewalks are covered with porticoes to protect from the weather be it rain or shine. We took a walk to the top of the street to see the two towers, both of which are on a lean. One of these is having some structural work done on it so it was part covered in scaffolding.
We arrived in Lugano about 3.30pm. The hotel is right in the centre of the town, but as it is built on a hill, the bus has to park out the back and you actually come in from the rooftop. We are on the 4th floor so look down on the courtyard which takes you to the main street. Right underneath us is the Funicular cable car used by the townsfolk to get from their cliff top houses to the town. We have been advised this is noisy and certainly you can hear this quite well. Looking at the timetable, this runs every 10 minutes until 11.50 pm and will restart at 05.20 am!
We had just enough time to have a little explore of the town before we needed to meet up again for the evening excursion. We have been advised this town is like the Swiss Monte Carlo and so geared for the wealthy rather than the tourist and certainly the prices of things reflect this. You can pay for things using Euro, but you will be given change in Swiss Francs. I think perhaps given the pricing we will wait until Lucerne and look for some better priced items there.
Tonight we are going on a Lake Cruise with a dinner as well. We are looking forward to seeing this town from the lake, however it has just started raining so we hope it will not spoil any photo opportunities.
Just got back. Unfortunately it did rain but given the exceptionally good weather we have had until now, we can't complain. We cruised around the lake being shown all the various villages which are on the hillsides, some with road access but mostly by Funicular or boat. When night fell this was all very beautiful with shimmering lights.
Given a glass of wine and a good meal, we both have very full tummy's, so are of to bed now. More of Switzerland tomorrow as we head to Lucerne.
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