William Tell Express

This is my second last weekend before I leave Basel and so I decided to make this the last one with a big trip. Ticino, the Italian -speaking part of Switzerland, is one of the last regions I haven't visited yet so I travelled to Lugano. It wasn't just any journey though, it was epic.

After saying bye to my visitors I took a train to Lucerne and then changed to a paddle steamer which took me to the other side of Lake Lucerne. It was a beautiful journey and I enjoyed having breakfast with views like this!

Then it was on another couple of trains to Ticino through the St Gotthard pass - an insanely clever system of spiral tunnels to get the train through the Alps. I stopped to see the castles in Bellinzona before I finished my journey in Lugano.

Ticino is very similar to Como which sadly made it seem a bit familiar having been in northern Italy a couple of weeks ago. I spent my evening taking a cogwheel train up to the top of Mount San Salvador and enjoyed the panoramic views as I hiked back down. Lugano had a Jazz festival on in the evening, Estival. I luckily got a seat at a restaurant table on the square where the main stage was and dined very leisurely on Italian food while watching some incredible performances.

A very memorable day.