Acquarello Swiss Quality Hotel Lugano

... good for what you pay!! And awesome for a backpacker!!
Went for drinks at Frank's Bar which Patrick who owns the hotel recommended. Turned out to be a pretty trendy cocktail joint
where you pay for your drink at 1 place then get it at another. 10 Euro for a beverage no matter what you had so naturally I ordered a long island ice tea!!!

... but it was nice to be able to relax and have a quiet walk around the villages. I needed to take a lot of ferries as this is the quickest way to get between each town as they are all placed at different points around the lake. A very nice place that I would love to visit again in the Summertime.

Next stop is Venice, Italy!

... to lunch. The grandparents live near Borgo's center, above one of the 3 Armani shops they own and run (the grandma knows Armani personally) and most of their children live in the same apartment complex. I met them all but couldn't tell you their names for the life of me, only that they were all wearing Armani everything-glasses, socks, shoes, even underwear. Meghan and I sat at the "kids" table, even though the oldest cousins are our age too, and it consisted of ...

... quaint with beautiful villas. We walked the gardens of the Melza Villa. The canons in the photos are not toys....they are from the Napoleonic period...used to defeat Milan. The keys are to the city of Milan from the 1700's.

The food here is terrific. We travel back to Milan tomorrow to pick up our friends and head to the villa in Montanione. Forecast is for thunderstorms...yeah!

Love,
R ich and Kara

Hi Everyone,
Today Alan and I took the ferry to Lenno, another beautiful town on Lake Come. This town is known for the Villa Balbianello. The gardens were amazing and we dedided to take the tour of the Villa, which is usually not such a big deal. We were surprised to find that the past owner of this villa, Guido Monzino, had ...

... Mussilini was ousted and arrested by his own party, the Germans helped him escape and set up a puppet regime in the north of Italy. When all was lost, and German troops were retreating, Mussulini and others tried to escape and were captured by communist partisans . They kept him and his mistress overnight then decided to execute them. There was a photo in the series that I will never forget of their mutilated bodies hanging ...

... Italian. Eventually I did return to reality, but not until after we visited Swiss Miniatur and San Salvatore. Swiss Miniatur is more or less self-explanatory, but I will say it was really cool to visit as a Swiss resident. It gave me and my friend some great ideas for future trips in the country. There are so many castles we never even knew existed! They really captured the great sites and monuments of Switzerland, including mountain ...

... Crazy climate!!! Dinner afrter the downpour was Italian- most people who live here are (23 k from Itlaian border)- was great I had Avocado Rissoto with shrimp and Galina had Pene Fromage.

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>With Italy to the south, we instead continued east along the Oberalppass. It was fun to drive, though not as memorable as the Sustenpass, and on getting to the bottom at the limits of the small town of Disentis/Mustér I was requested to pull over at a police caravan set up at the roadside. I had not remembered the speed limit outside towns for all roads, other than motorways, in Switzerland was always 80km/h ...

... of the villagers. They are very hard workers in this area and appreciate the tourist buying their products. As I was walking on those stone streets I could not help but wonder what it must have been like 100 or 200 years ago there...probably much the same minus us tourists. In the evening we went to Lugano by train and had dinner on the lake. It was marvelous. Lugano is such a romantic place. We did a little "window shopping ...