I had too much to say for one post so.... See the post below for the rest of the story! The second post is a lot more entertaining and this one has more history.
This weekend was one of my most random and fabulous travel experiences. Ever! I really don’t know where to begin – Saturday in particular was one of those days where everything came together without and stress or force. We couldn’t have planned it! Daria and Kate – I thought of you both a lot because these random coincidences would occur when I’m with you J. Essentially I stayed in a hostel that looked like an Italian villa, happened upon three separate festivals/parades, and witnessed multiple native dances/native baton twirling formations….whhhaattt? I was traveling with Kelvin Bates, a friend from Lakeside High School, and his college friend Evan who is with him on a program here in Geneva. Excellent travel companions!
We trained from Geneva to to Lugano on Friday night, got into our hostel that looked like an elegant Italian villa, and crashed. As we rode across the country crossed through French, then German, then Italian Switzerland. With each train stop the languages being spoken around me faded in and out in prevalence depending on our location. Announcements over the loudspeaker are usually made in at least three languages – the primarily language of the Canton first, then priority goes first to German and Second to French. English is typically the third language because Switzerland is so international. Ohhh we lucky native English-speaking Americans. Swiss trains never cease to amaze – unless I’m mistaken it is THE most well connected by rail place in the world. And they had to deal with the Alps…
Saturday morning we took off for some epic urban trekking through the old cobbled streets and beautiful buildings and along Lago di Lugano. Mountains rise up all around this not too cold and sparkling clean (Swiss take PRIDE in keeping their natural world clean) lake. We went into two cathedrals – so unbelievably different from Genevoise architecture! Calvin nipped extravagance in the bud so baroque/renaissance architecture is largely missing in Geneva. Geneva also obviously became mostly Protestant while Ticino has remained almost exclusively Catholic. Ticino has had healthy influences from Italy – its cathedrals are replete with marble inlay (Deepa!) and vivid paintings. After soaking up these awe-inspiring monuments to god we wandered up one of the big hills surrounding Lago di Lugano. We were trying to get inside “Castello Paradiso” (I mean, who is doesn’t want to see Paradise Castle?!?) but it was actually private property so we could only creep around the outside… Our trek did lead us to the “Parco Panoramico”. Side-note: between Kelvin, Evan and I we knew about five words of Italian, but we learned that if you say things in Spanish with great feeling you can sort of get the ball rolling. Kelvin was particularly good at deciphering Italian signs in museums. My Italian consisted of “Bongiorno Princepesa!”, “Ciao, bella!” and, “That’s Amore!” Which, Kelvin and Evan kindly informed me, was half English. Some local Swiss DID teach me how to say, “I cuddle with my cow pillow”. Stay tuned to find out just why that was truly pertinent to our conversation.
I think we need a little background on Language in Switzerland! Ticino is the largest Italian speaking Canton in Switzerland. Though not commonly used in the business/public realm, Italian is one of Switzerland’s three official languages: German – 63%, French – 21%, and Italian – 7%. The fourth “National Language” (meaning it is recognized culturally and historically, but not for public/official use) is Rumantsch. Only about half a percent of Swiss speak it as a first language – it is a very old language native to Southeastern Switzerland. Part of the reason I wanted to go to Ticino was to see how such a different culture from Geneva and from the German north, fit into the collage of Switzerland. My initial reaction was that I was in transplanted Italy… but of course it didn’t take long for life to complicate my perceptions.
Geneva is in the southwestern corner of la Suisse on the Lac Leman and Lugano is the little white dot on the southern lake in the "Swiss Italian" dark green area. Bellinzona is just north.
Next we took out a paddle boat on the lake for an hour! Loads cheaper than Geneva, WOAH. We swam, it was gorgeous and sunny, Alps in the background, valleys and mountains all around the lake, perfect water temperature…. Kelvin had a Euro suit because he lived in Spain this summer and was trying to fit in. HAHAHA Kelvin. He’ll be ever so pleased that I included that detail.
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