Cal and Maria recommended I travel south via Ticino, Italian Switzerland

“It’s like Italy where everything actually works!”

Sounded good to me. I boarded a train to Lugano. The journey from Zurich is beautiful.

The city lies on Lake Lugano, surrounded by the mountains of the Lugano Prealps. …

Like many other mountain lake towns, it’s stunning. Especially at night.

The climate of Ticino, while remaining alpine, is noticeably milder than the rest of Switzerland’s, enjoying a higher number of sunshine hours and generally warmer temperatures. …

In Lugano they vacuum leaves. That ain’t happening in Italy.