Holiday Inn 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!

... another according to the train website the day before, but apparently not everything you see online is true. I had to make a transfer, but luckily, it turned out well. The ride into Brescia was stressful, the ticket man (I don't know his official title) was coming around to check our tickets but the man in the seat next to me didn't have his. A little argument commenced, then some all out shouting, and fingers being pointed and scary looks in angry eyes. I was a ...

... 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

... down in a square. The tour guide told the story of this event which was in fact played out around Como with the bodies being hung upside down in the nearby city of Milan.

As with everything these days I was able to retrieve the picture from the internet and have included it to reinforce the adage that violence begets violence - and on a smaller scale even the young love in Romeo and Juliet is destroyed by family conflict ...

... getting our overnight stuff and some clean clothes out.

To explain: rather than take suitcases, we had packed all our clothes together in a large plastic box with a lid. Great idea, right, as when you have pitched the tent, the box just gets put into it, and all your stuff is ready and keeps dry. However, if you aren't pitching a tent, and removing the camping stuff from on top of the box, then it's almost impossible to get at your clean undies ...

... sidewalk cafes lining the piazzas, and sparkling lake nestled between two lush mountains make it a dazzling city. We really didn't do much other than sit outside in piazzas and terraces watching the world go by while we ate delicious food. And I love the Italian language. It is so enchanting. I was tempted to ditch my life in Basel and move to Lugano so I could give up learning German and switch to a much more delightful sounding language ...

... enjoying utterly and completely sitting back on the train (despite the two changes and therefore three different trains l have to take) to get from Lausanne to the Swiss/Italian lake side town of Lugano. I have been wanting to visit the Italian speaking province of Suisse for a long time having lived in the French and travelled extensively throughout the German (Allemande) region. So l am staying overnight in Lugano and hoping to spend a lovely Saturday afternoon once l arrive ...

... Ferrari factory tour was incredible enough. But, remarkably, it had just got even better. The Brazilian Grand Prix, the last Formula One race of the season, was about to start. And we were in the spiritual heartland of the prancing horse to watch Michael Schumacher race for Ferrari for the very last time before retiring – with a chance at winning an eighth World Driver’s Championship and earning Ferrari the year’s Constructor’s Championship. Hoges and I ...

We woke up and had a light breakfast at the house and then headed up to our classroom. We spoke with the VT Provost for about an hour. He was here with the other deans of all of the colleges of VT for a retreat. After the conversation we had a few of our presentations on Riva, Lugano, Lausanne, Luzern and Zurich. We had lunch and then hopped on the train north to Lugano. Lugano is a city of ~50,000 people located to the north of the lake that bears its ...