Day 10 - Lugano

A night of good sleep works wonders - a night of good sleep in a swanky hotel is even better!  The

Villa Sassa offered us a sizable suite, complete with a spacious balcony and view of the majestic mountains.  As we saw from our pictures last night, the many houses dotting the mountain twinkled like stars, and provided a stark contrast in the morning light.  Mona got up earlier than I did, and snapped a nice picture of the sunrise behind the mountain.  By the time I could drag myself out of bed, the sun was clear of the mountains and already warming up the air.

We headed down to sample the continental breakfast.  Other guests filled the busy restaurant, so we found an empty table outdoors on the patio.  As the sun rose higher, it started to fill the valley with light as well, and the lake came into full view from our table.  It would be nice to get both views from our hotel room, but I can see why those rooms would reserved for guests paying the top-tier price.

With breakfast behind us, we planned for our day.  We learned that on Sundays, nearly everything shuts down in the city.  Grocery stores, markets, shops and many services are unavailable until Monday morning.  One of the hotel amenities includes the Ticino Ticket, named for this area of Switzerland.  This ticket includes local travel on the bus line and the funicular trains that vertically climbs the mountain.  We decided to take advantage of this today.

Leaving our hotel, we chose to walk a bit to the Church of St. Lawrence, then explore from there.  It was a short distance from the hotel, downhill from a major highway.  We passed a bus stop, not even a minute from the hotel.  At the stop, there was a ticket vending machine, designed to use near-field (NFC) touch-to-pay systems on a smartphone.  As much of Europe has shifted to cash-less or nearly cash-less sales, nearly every recent smartphone includes a proximity system to wireless transmit bank information to perform a sale.  Simple touch your phone to the pay symbol, and your account is automatically debited the amount.  The bus stops all include such a system, where a user can select the ticket(s) necessary, then just touch your smartphone to pay for it.  I also noted the system had no place to insert coins, bills or even a credit card - truly a fast transaction!

Down the hill, we found ourselves outside the ornate church.  We took a few pictures outside,  admiring the view of the mountains.  Inside, we were treated to stained glass frezas, ornate oil paintings and marble statues.  Like us, other tourists quietly tiptoed about, taking pictures as they went.

In front of the cathedral, we took a few more pictures, then planned our next stop - the funicular train station.  Not far from the train station we arrived in, an adjacent station held a stop for the funicular train, which traveled up the mountain, instead of along it.  From the cathedral, we took a series of winding roads and began a long, downward slope.  

On either side of us, row after row of shops and businesses were closed.  On Sunday, it seems like the town literally shuts down.  Combined with the fact that late October is

well-after the tourist season, it seemed to make sense businesses would close on such a slow day.  Near the bottom of the hill, we found the funicular station.  We pulled out the Ticino tickets we received from the hotel and the attendant waved us through.  Minutes later, the car quietly descended the track to our stop.  After boarding, the car rose up the mountainside, slowly but quietly.  At the top, the funicular station ended adjacent to the train station, this one was actually quite close to our hotel.  Walking into the station, we soon found an ATM and pulled out a few Swiss francs.  I think we could still use our Euros here, but we had only a few of those left.

From the train station, we looked at ways to navigate down to the water, as Mona wanted a chance to go to the beach.  Thanks to Google, we could take a bus from the train station, ride it a few stops and end up at the waterfront.  Catching the #2 bus was easy - it was less than 60ft from where we stood.  The bus looped a few adjacent streets and began to head through the downtown business district.  Plenty of closed shops were visible, save for the Subway restaurant that was fairly full of people.

The bus came to a stop just ahead of a bridge over a small canal, which was our final destination.  To our right, the canal flowed out to the lake, through a large marina.  We headed towards the waterfront to find a nice park.  We reached the beach, which was barely 20ft long, much smaller than the pictures we'd seen online.  Only later would we realize that this was related to the season and tide - this late in the year, the beach was swallowed by the water, leaving only a few feet of actual sand.

Undeterred, we set off in search of another beach we saw, this one was a paid beach at a local sports club, just down from the (nonexistent) public beach.  We walked along and found the sport club, but as this was a for-fee club, we kept walking.  We kept getting passed by patrons with gelato, so we opted to find dessert instead!  A few blocks away, a small gelato restaurant came in view, so we grabbed a few cones.  The helpful gal behind the counter clued us in that there was very little accessible beach on this side of the lake - we'd have to drive miles to the other side in hopes of finding the other public beach.  Ah well - at least we had pools, sauna and steam rooms at the hotel!

We walked back from the gelato to an adjacent bus stop.  We could catch a bus here that would lead

back to station.  As the day wore on, lunch was at the top of the priority list.  Back at the train station, a nice restaurant beckoned, so we opted to eat here.  A calzone and a pizza were near the top of our to-do list, and the waiter was happy to oblige.  However, both items covered an entire plate - each!  There was more-than-enough food for two meals, so a to-go container was necessary.  We finished paying the bill with a few minutes to spare, so we walked over to the adjacent bus stop.  From the station, we could catch a bus that was a direct line to our hotel, dropping us off right in front - how convenient!

Days of walking made my feet feel link worn-down pencil erasers, so it was time to enjoy the amenities of the hotel.  We changed and went down to the hotel spa, to enjoy ourselves and wash away the many days of walking.  Today was the last day to enjoy the steam room, as it would be closed for the next few days for service.  The steam room, sauna and hottub were all very nice and relaxing, after days of go-go-go travel.

Dinnertime was at hand, so we opted to try our luck with the buses again.  Mona picked a restaurant near a stop from earlier in the day - Google gave us just a few minutes to make the walk in time to catch the bus.  The winding road seemed to take us right where we wanted, but just as we emerged onto the street, a bus was headed right for us.  I quickly ran after it and caught it, not realizing that it was going in the wrong direction until we boarded it.  DOH!  Fortunately, it only had a few stops before it would reverse direction and head back in the direction we originally intended.  As we rode, Mona spied a Mediterranean restaurant near our stop, so off we went.  The restaurant had a nice mix of Middle Eastern fare, so we enjoyed a quiet dinner.

Not too far from our next bus stop, we followed the quiet city streets.  Our bus soon arrived and we were once again back in our hotel.  For Ramona, the "vacation" portion of this trip was over.  Tomorrow was the first day of her conference, and she would be in sessions and meetings throughout the day.  What does tomorrow hold for Karl?  We'll see!