Day 17: Leaving Lucerne, Bellinzona and Ticino

Sadly, today I had to leave Lucerne. Colette needed to go to work early, so we woke up and had a good-bye breakfast. She was kind enough to give me a lovely bag she'd picked up from her travels in India - as I had managed to successfully demolish my own bags from India, I was very pleased indeed.


A beautiful day.

Thanks to the magical qualities of the Swiss public transportation system, getting my gigantic bag onto the bus into town and down the hill was surprisingly easy (especially because the weather was gorgeous). I alit at the bus station and decided to hang out in the sun on the dock for a while. All of Switzerland's aspiring dissolute youths seemed to be hanging out by the fountain in front of the convention center, practicing their world-despising sneers and showing off their impeccable scene-kids hair cuts. Sorry, guys - you live in Lucerne. In Switzerland. How bad can it possibly be?


One of Lucerne's classic paddle-wheel boats.

I had a quick lunch at some buffet-salad place - antipasto plates are always and eternally will be my pal - and got on the train. It was clean, quiet, and efficient (you're surprised, right?). The route from Lucerne to Bellinzona is drop-dead gorgeous, passing by (perhaps aforementioned) primordial glaciers, rushing mountain streams, awe-inspiringly steep farms and other classical Swiss sights. I however, fell asleep. (I can't stay awake on any method of conveyance - boats being the worst. This is probably a blessing).

We arrived in Bellinzona, and I was picked up at the station by the lovely Teresa, Daniel, and Noah. Teresa is my friend Judith's pal from grade-school, and she'd kindly agreed to host me for a few days while I explored the Ticino canton of Switzerland. Daniel, her husband, hails from Israel but has spent a lot of time in New York City - he was even a Grey Line bus tour host at one point.

A little about Bellinzona and Ticino. Bellinzona has been a strategic pass through the Alps since Roman times, making it a pivotal trading center between Italy and regions beyond. A fort was first built here during the reign of Augustus, and the town's position as a key strategic and trading point saw its considerable growth as the centuries went by. The city has come under the control of a few zillion different powers, which I am entirely too lazy to list here: groups from the Eastern Byzantine Empire to the Longoboards to Frankish Kingdom had control of the area. Milan eventually gained control of Bellinzona and would retain it for over a century. Louis XII of France finally captured Bellinzona from the Milanese in 1499, but was kicked out when the Bellinzonans revolted violently against the French occupation. On April 14 in 1500, Bellinzona joined the Swiss Confederation, but it did not become a part of the canton of Ticino until 1803, where it shared a rotating capital-ship with Lugano and Locarno. The city feels extremely Italian, full of piazzas, terra-cotta architecture, and a decidedly Mediterranean way of life and ambience. Most people speak Italian, and many people of Italian descent or origin reside here.

In any case, we headed back to their lovely new house, set up against the green hills of the region. Daniel prepared some roasted chicken, and we had dinner. Teresa took me on a stroll up the hill, affording a beautiful view of the valley and the mountains, complete with a picturesque white waterfall. Exhausted, I went to bed early - I was going to explore Bellinzona's famous castles the next day.