The Montarina is an old, pink villa, set in a forest of palm trees, that has been turned into a hostel. The next-door building is the hotel, where the non-dormitory rooms are. Ours was simple but nice, and best of all, had air conditioning! Wi-fi was available in the lobby, but if you had your own ethernet cable, as I did, you could connect in your room. There was a nice swimming pool, which we didn’t use, as well as an outdoor breakfast “room” (which we also didn’t use) with nicely varnished picnic tables.
Both the Montarina and the railway station are on a hill overlooking downtown Lugano. To get down the hill, you take a funicular from the station (1.10 francs—about a dollar—unless you have a Swiss Pass, in which case it’s free). We went down, asking the woman who went down with us where we could find a supermarket, she said that Manor was just around the corner, but that it was closed, like practically every store in the city, for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. We discovered that this was true not only of stores, but of many restaurants as well. Eventually, after following Rick Steves’s walking tour, we had salad and a pizza (both good) at Tango, a restaurant with one side on the main square (Piazza di la Riforma) and another terrace on a small square in back. While we were there, it started first to thunder, then to rain, but that soon ended, except for occasional sprinkles.
Lugano is a pleasant city with a nice park on the lakefront, besides being the second-most-important banking center in Switzerland, after Zurich.
The next morning (Wednesday, June 30th), we took the funicular down and went to Manor, which is a gigantic department store, with a gigantic supermarket in its basement. Mary Joy was in seventh heaven down there. We got some food for breakfast and lunch and had a coffee. Then we went to the lakeshore and ate our croissants and drank our yogurt drinks on a park bench.
We went back up to the hotel, finished packing, checked out, and for about half an hour sat in the sun at a picnic table while Mary Joy wrote post cards and I read last Monday’s International Herald Tribune newspaper. Then we went down and caught the 10:30 train to Giabiasco, where we caught the 11:04 to Locarno, where we walked over to the private FART railway station (no jokes, please!), where we caught the 11:37 Centovalli Panoramic train to Domodossola, Italy. We actually had to pay 2 francs apiece for this ride, as a supplement because of the panorama windows.
The Centovalli (hundred valleys) is a long valley with many side valleys. The route, though with no to-die-for views, was much more interesting and pleasant than the previous day’s bus ride. About halfway through, we crossed the border into Italy. In Domodossola, we caught the Milan-Geneva train and rode it back into Switzerland, through the tunnel under the Simplon Pass, and got off almost immediately, in Brig.
Both the Montarina and the railway station are on a hill overlooking downtown Lugano. To get down the hill, you take a funicular from the station (1.10 francs—about a dollar—unless you have a Swiss Pass, in which case it’s free). We went down, asking the woman who went down with us where we could find a supermarket, she said that Manor was just around the corner, but that it was closed, like practically every store in the city, for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. We discovered that this was true not only of stores, but of many restaurants as well. Eventually, after following Rick Steves’s walking tour, we had salad and a pizza (both good) at Tango, a restaurant with one side on the main square (Piazza di la Riforma) and another terrace on a small square in back. While we were there, it started first to thunder, then to rain, but that soon ended, except for occasional sprinkles.
Lugano is a pleasant city with a nice park on the lakefront, besides being the second-most-important banking center in Switzerland, after Zurich.
The next morning (Wednesday, June 30th), we took the funicular down and went to Manor, which is a gigantic department store, with a gigantic supermarket in its basement. Mary Joy was in seventh heaven down there. We got some food for breakfast and lunch and had a coffee. Then we went to the lakeshore and ate our croissants and drank our yogurt drinks on a park bench.
We went back up to the hotel, finished packing, checked out, and for about half an hour sat in the sun at a picnic table while Mary Joy wrote post cards and I read last Monday’s International Herald Tribune newspaper. Then we went down and caught the 10:30 train to Giabiasco, where we caught the 11:04 to Locarno, where we walked over to the private FART railway station (no jokes, please!), where we caught the 11:37 Centovalli Panoramic train to Domodossola, Italy. We actually had to pay 2 francs apiece for this ride, as a supplement because of the panorama windows.
The Centovalli (hundred valleys) is a long valley with many side valleys. The route, though with no to-die-for views, was much more interesting and pleasant than the previous day’s bus ride. About halfway through, we crossed the border into Italy. In Domodossola, we caught the Milan-Geneva train and rode it back into Switzerland, through the tunnel under the Simplon Pass, and got off almost immediately, in Brig.
We have been through Brig many times, but have gotten off of trains there only for the purpose of getting onto other trains. Brig is the place where the Simplon route over the Alps crosses the broad, deep valley of the Rhone River, which flows from the Rhone Glacier west and south, then curves northwest to flow into Lake Geneva. Brig is on the most natural route from Milan to Geneva and Lyon, and now, with the Loetschberg Tunnel, is on the direct rail line from Milan to Interlaken (which is why we’ve been through here so often in the past), Bern, Basel and Frankfurt. We are here now because, as a rail junction, it gives us a great deal of flexibility for day trips by train, depending on the weather and other circumstances—we don’t want to go to Zermatt when the Matterhorn is covered by clouds. It is a very pleasant town of 19,000, with an interesting old town,where we're staying.
We had a good dinner (Mary Joy was very pleased with her beef and vinaigrette dish) at the Restaurant Angleterre.
We had a good dinner (Mary Joy was very pleased with her beef and vinaigrette dish) at the Restaurant Angleterre.
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