Lugano, Switzerland

In June my friend Amy and I took a day trip up to Lake Lugano in Switzerland.  The lake is partially in Switzerland and partially in Italy.  The city of Lugano is located on the Switzerland side of the border.  It's a very beautiful city, the lake views are gorgeous.  And of course there is the Swiss chocolate that is to die for.  I may have come away with 3-4 samples from various stores.

The town

Views from our boat cruise

Lakeside park

Park & Read...what a great concept!

Fun stuff in town

Summer 2012

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from our summer.

Beach

Easy drive to Sottomarina beach.  We rented chairs and an umbrella right on the beach, had lunch, swam a little and relaxed.  I took a little getting used to seeing naked Italian children and topless mothers building sand castles together though.  :)

Not the beach....but Corona tried to make us feel like we were at one!  We aren't entirely sure why this bus was randomly around or what it was for but it was a great picture op nonetheless. 

Pictures of our home in San Pietro in Gu

 

Mike & Toni's Visit

Our 2nd visitors to Italy were my friends from Minnesota that now live in Las Vegas.  Mike and Toni were making a tour across Europe and had stopped in London, Holland, Germany, Austria and now Italy.  We only had a few days to work with and we wanted to be outside as much as possible so we took them to our favorite outdoors-y places.

Siramione, Lake Garda

Lake Garda is a lake just north of us about an hour's drive away.  The northern end of the lake is a bit further but we wanted to stay closer to home.  Many of the small towns were the vacation destinations of the ancient Romans so there are ruins from their villas in these areas.  Most towns also have a small medieval castle which were built by the various successors to the Roman rulers.  Aside from Siramione having a beach area and beach activities it also has the most gellaterias I've ever seen in one small town.  Literally one on every single corner!  There also appeared to be a triathlon about to take place but we've found that races in Italy start later in the day than they do in the States.  The race still hadn't started at 4pm when we were leaving town.  So strange.

52 Tunnels

We took Mike and Toni on the 52 Tunnel hike because a) we knew they would enjoy it, b) Nick and I had never hiked the whole thing and c)  it was hotter than Hades in Italy and being up in the mountains would provide us some relief from the heat.  It was at least a 4-hour hiking event and I actually quite enjoyed it.  Surprisingly the hike up was a lot easier than the hike down.  Who knew?

Venice

A trip to Italy isn't complete without a visit to Venice, the most unique city on earth!  Toni and I splurged for a Bellini at Harry's Bar, the home of the original bellini!  The experience with my friend was totally worth it but the 22 euro per drink was a bit ridiculous. Oh well, when in Rome!  :)

It was awesome spending some quality time with Mike and Toni.  They have been such good friends to me for so many years.  Three days was not enough but I'm thankful that they were able to stop in and see us while on their tour.  Next up for them was Switzerland, France and Holland again!  Love you guys and we'll see you soon...I hope!!