love lugano - part 1

We refer to our trip to Lugano as a mini-moon - a honeymoon before the honeymoon. It was our last weekend together before I head back to the states on Wednesday. It's crazy to think and it hasn't sunk in yet, but I won't see Zach again until the Wednesday before our wedding. All told we had a wonderful wonderful weekend in Lugano and cannot wait to go back. We embraced the Swiss culture of walking and spent almost the entire weekend walking. We would set out on a walk and ultimately find ourselves somewhere we could sit down for a nice meal and a yummy bottle of the local Merlot.
Considering it was our last weekend together we decided to book the room with a view, and thank goodness we did because the view was spectacular and the complimentary breakfast was out of this world delicious.
We inevitably find ourselves on long, somewhat difficult, walks when we travel in Switzerland. It always pays off because we are ravenous when we eventually sit down to eat and the walk, usually uphill, leads to spots with great views.
We were told by tour books and friends that we had to find a grotto to eat at. Our walk led us to this little spot, which we enjoyed despite the fact that the food wasn't that good. It's interesting, though that wine is served in little ceramic bowls. The Ticin (the region where Lugano is) is known for it's Merlots and although Merlot is not my favorite the local wines which we had all weekend were all wonderfully light and smooth and definitely worth a try if you can find Swiss wine outside of Switzerland.
Campari is something I want to like, but I just don't...yet. It's too bitter. I always try and order it, but I'm consistently surprised by how bitter it is. My friend Kerry really wants to like pickles so she wills herself to like them, and I might have to do the same with Campari. (Just a side note inspired by this sign)

I take normal full body photographs of Zach, but whenever I ask him to take a photo of me it always ends up as a head shot. Perhaps he takes offense to my outfits?
Right after this photo was taken the rain started. We were out on a walk to see what was around the corner, towards Morcote, when it started pouring. Fortunately we were only steps away from this hysterically great restaurant. Think 80s interior and 270 degree views. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We ordered a bottle of the local Ticino Merlot and hunkered down to wait out the storm.
Two hours later the rain had stopped and we were able to walk back down the hill towards Lugano.

part 2 to come soon.