The underrated region where Italian lifestyle meets Swiss efficiency
Alpine meets Mediterranean vibes in Ticino, the only Swiss canton where Italian is the sole official language, and where pastel-hued villages reflect into sparkling lakes, and snow-drizzled mountains backdrop promenades with immaculately groomed flower beds and inviting al fresco cafe-bars.
'We like to say we have the Italian lifestyle but with Swiss efficiency,' says Michel Cavadini, who meets me as my train – bang on time – pulls into Locarno, a resort town perched by Lake Maggiore, one of the divine bodies of water bordering southern Switzerland and northern Italy.
Cavadini grew up here, and after a stint away, he's back as Ticino Tourism's head of foreign markets. While German and French-speaking Swiss know all about Ticino – and its milder temperatures and 2200 hours of annual sunshine, more than Melbourne, apparently – the region is comparatively unknown overseas. Australians, for example, stick mostly to the cities, pistes and railways north of the Gotthard Pass, which separates Ticino from the rest of Switzerland.
Once an ordeal to get here – you'd need a mule at least – Swiss engineering prowess has pierced the 2106-metre-high pass with awe-inspiring road and rail tunnels. I've travelled down from Zurich on the slower, scenic Treno Gottardo, which takes over three hours, but faster trains reach Ticino in under two. Coming from Milano Centrale? You'll be in Ticino in just over an hour.
You could stay in Lugano, the canton's biggest city (home to a fifth of Ticino's 350,000 population). It sits by Lake Lugano, another mountain-fringed beauty spot shared by Switzerland and Italy. But even lovelier, for me, is Locarno, 30 minutes up the road and with handy public transport for day trips plus links to Ticino's 4000-kilometre-strong network of marked walking trails.
One path ascends to the 15th-century sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso, which crowns a crag above my hillside base, Hotel Belvedere Locarno, where rooms have balconies facing Lake Maggiore and eclectic artwork includes vintage posters of the Locarno International Film Festival, an event luring celebrities to town each August. Hollywood-esque blue skies (and 20-degree daytime temperatures) are a feature of my late-March stay when magnolias and camellias bloom in the hotel's gorgeous gardens.
There's a cinematic beauty to the shores and cobbled old cores of Locarno and neighbouring Ascona, a quaint former fishing village with lakeside buildings shaded peach, turquoise and canary yellow. Vibrant colours may also entice you into the local gelato parlours. Ticinese and Italian tastebuds are same-same but different. Pasta, pizza, risotto and tiramisu are menu staples alongside regional specialities like polenta, rabbit stew and cicitt di capra (goat sausage). Merlot is Ticino's dominant wine grape, though they make (fruity, floral) white varieties as well as reds.
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