Tuesday, July 17, 2007--St. Moritz to Lugano--Day 9

Between St. Moritz and Lugano (and probably Lucerne as well), we may never want to leave. It’s beyond beautiful. I know I keep saying the scenery is breathtaking, but that’s truly the only way to describe it. Sometimes I find myself gasping at the wonder of God’s creation.

We reluctantly left St. Moritz at 8:00 a.m. and drove through Switzerland into Italy. We passed through the mountains at Maloya Pass, which includes a series of 12 astonishingly tight hairpin turns down the mountain. I’m surprised we had dry pants after that scary ride. Six Flags has nothing on the natural topography of this region. Massimo really earned his pay today, as well as a day off. He’s going to visit his home near Lake Como, and his brother, Mauritzio, will be our driver tomorrow (to Zermatt).

We continued on to Lake Como to the town of Menaggio, where we stopped for gelato. Yum! Not long afterward, Lake Como forked into two lakes, and we followed the Como portion. At the fork is a small mountain, and at its base is the pretty village of Bellaggio, which we saw and photographed from across the lake. We kept driving along Lake Como, passing the town of Laglio, where George Clooney has a villa (whoopee). We eventually turned away from Lake Como and drove a few more miles to Lugano. Our hotel is about a block-and-a-half from Lake Lugano. We checked in and drove to the main part of the city, where we were dropped off for the afternoon. The four of us had pizza for lunch, then we walked through a lovely park along the lake. We rented a pedal boat for a half hour and went out onto the cool, clear lake. I guess I should mention that it’s terribly hot again today, in the 90s. We were fading fast, so we bought bottles of water and walked back to the hotel for showers and rest. At least this hotel has AC, thank goodness. We’ll hate leaving this pretty place in the morning, but at least we’re headed for Zermatt, which is at the base of the Matterhorn, so it should be cooler.

Observation 1: Lugano is actually in Switzerland, the Italian portion of the country, which is right across the border from Italy. It’s so Italian, you’d never know you were in Switzerland.

Observation 2: After seeing St. Moritz and Lugano I’d suggest that Globus cut out the stops at St. Veit and Innsbruck and add another day each to St. Moritz and Lugano. Everyone seems to agree. It would probably increase the price of the trip, but it would be worth it.