Swiss with a twist
It’s the tail end of a sizzling European summer when we say goodbye to Zürich in Switzerland’s north (it turns out the city will see its first fall of snow in just a week’s time). The two-hour rail journey south cuts through the centre of Switzerland, through fog-shrouded Zug and past pretty Lake Lucerne. As we enter the country’s southernmost canton, Italian-speaking Ticino, and close in on Lugano, that fog seems a world away. The sun beams down on a landscape of palm trees, bougainvillea and terracotta-tiled roofs: the atmosphere has clicked over from alpine to Mediterranean.
The train platform in Lugano offers a stellar introductory view across the rooftops of the city (population 64,000) to
