A Trip to Lugano

Switzerland is know more widely for the ice covered Alps running across the country and the various establishments promoting United Nation's principles of Universal harmony and peace. This is the primary reason that foreign tourists are attracted towards two major centers in the country viz Geneva (also know as Genève, Genf) and Zürich. You can find people (mostly of Asian origin) wondering over the streets of Zurich in groups of 20+ capturing in their handy and technologically sophisticated digital cameras what ever they find worth capturing(and trust me they are quite liberal in this).
Although their are these two major tourist centers but can you believe you can imagine Mediterranean weather in Switzerland?, streets laned up with palm trees and architecture borrowing heavily from Italian way of building? People speaking Italian as their first language and streets full of pizza lovers? In short can you experience Italy in Switzerland and the answer is YES, I found the answer to this question when Lugano located in south-east corner of Switzerland, part which few call as Italian part of Switzerland!

Reaching Lugano is not a problem at all as it has frequent connections from both Lucerne and Zurich, since I was based in Olten so I took a train to Lucerne and then took another train to Lugano total journey lasting for around 2.5 hours, on return we took a train which took us to Zurich (again around 2 hours). As always you can find a train which suits you at http://www.rail.ch and yes for all the students and Glies-7 travelers, there are trains after 7 which can take you to Lugano (at least from Northern parts of the country).
I visited Lugano in May 2006, and would frankly say I was simply mesmerized by the superb weather and also carefree and passionate residents of the city. Most of the important places in terms of tourist interests are located around the famous Lake Lugano who's water was deep blue!

It would be termed as a sin if you are a foreign tourist and don't try out the local and favorite disk "Pizza" once you are in Lugano, you simply have to check it out. Apart from that places which are work visiting include Monte Bre, St. Lawrence Cathedral, St. Mary of the Angels Church, Piazza Riforma, the Town Hall, and outdoor chess on giant boards apart from several other things. My personal favourite was Monte Bre because the view from it was simply breathtaking (as you can notice in the image). Churches can also be of interest to people who have inclination towards history and religion, and yes "The Grand Lugano Casino" should be on the list of someone who wants to give her luck a chance while in this beautiful city. I have listed several products alongside available with Amazon.com which are quite relevant for people planning to visit Lugano and therefore can be very helpful and for bikers there is a special attraction out there :-)