Posts Tagged ‘Locarno’
Swiss Sun Parlor Has Latin Lilt
By Cecil Scaglione
Mature Life Features
LOCARNO — While the scenery in the Swiss “sun parlor,” the country’s southernmost canton of Ticino, may not overwhelm you with dramatic alpine vistas as some more-rugged sections of the country do, it carries a lingering charm. Life in this polenta-pasta-and-palm-tree finger of land poking into northern Italy has a leisurely Latin lilt.
Conversation is punctuated with gestures not seen in the more sedate sections of Switzerland. Grappa, a potent Italian liquor, is the traditional after-dinner Ticino tipple.

Not only do Italian, French and Swiss cultures mingle here, it’s also the geographical point at which the great plate of the African continent shoulders its way into the European continent, rumpling the landscape into what we call the Alps.
We rolled into this vista of valleys, vineyards and villas, following a couple of days in the magnificent Hotel Dolder Grand in Zurich. A leisurely day-long boat-and-train trip carried us almost the entire width of this nation.
A short walk from the Locarno’ train terminal is the Grand Hotel Locarno, overlooking the crisp, cool waters of Lago Maggiore. We took the time to sip a satisfying local merlot in the wine cellar of this historic hostelry, where the fragile treaties designed to keep a lasting peace in Europe following World War I were drafted.
Then we boarded a bus to neighboring Ascona, a lakeside town that peers up at the border village of Brissago, renowned for its hand-rolled cigars.
A 30-minute train trip through Centovalli (Hundred Valleys) and a cable car took us to a grotto (country cafe) in the pocket community of Raza. There we energized ourselves with a hearty meal of beef stew, polenta, red wine, salad and espresso, all washed down with a healthy belt of grappa.
It’s only a one-hour drive from Locarno to Lugano, Ticino’s largest city, but we took a bit longer by stopping for lunch in the canton’s capital, Bellinzona. Three medieval castles here still guard the Magadino Plain, historically a major entrance to Europe’s heartland.
Lugano, the third major Swiss financial center after Zurich and Geneva because of its perch on Italy’s northern border, embraces its namesake lake. Along its shores are a chocolate museum, curiously the only one in this country, and a smuggler’s museum.
This resort city is within a couple of hours by auto, bus or train from Milan, Genoa, Geneva, Lucerne and Lausanne.
Menus in many Ticino restaurants are fixed and feature the freshest mixture available of hearty peasant cuisines.
Polenta, mentioned earlier, is a regional favorite. This traditional Italian corn-meal dish is served in endless ways: as a side dish like rice or potatoes, sliced cold and re-fried with an entree, or as a dessert swimming in syrups and sauces. Its distinct smoky flavor results from slow stirring as it simmers over an open fire.
Via Nassa is Lugano’s Fifth Avenue. As in Locarno, there are excellent boutiques and inexpensive stalls sprinkled throughout the town offering local crafts and items toted over the border from Italy.
When we went shopping we looked for the Migros stores.
Three large Ms across the front of the building means a full-service and full-variety department store; two Ms, a supermarket, and one M, a convenience shop.