Surprises everywhere
Lugano, Switzerland’s most southernmost
tourist city, is close to Italy, and
most people in the canton (state)
speak Italian. The terrain, architecture and climate are very different from
the rest of the country.
My travel buddy had wanted to add Lugano
onto the end of our Swiss hiking trip. We were sailing around on Lake Lugano
when our hiking guide found us up on deck enjoying the scenery and pleasant warm
day. He wanted to give us directions and tell us about a lovely grotto
restaurant before he left early the next morning.
We decided to give it a go and the
following morning boarded the local bus to Paradiso where we transferred to a
post bus that would take us to the grotto. Little did we know we were in for a
hair-raising ride over a narrow switchback, hairpin-turn road up, up and up the
mountain. At the pass the driver slowed
as he had little more than an inch to spare on each side of the bus as we
squeezed through the pass with stone walls on each side.
The driver alerted us at the proper stop
and pointed us toward a cobblestone alley. After walking some distance I began to
wonder if we were in the right place. I had the restaurant name on a piece of
paper and the driver assured us he knew where it was. But as this thought
crossed my mind we made one more turn and all of a sudden the grotto appeared!
In spite of reassurances the day before
that some people spoke English, no one did, no waiters, nor other diners and
the menu was also in Italian, not a real surprise. However we were able out
figure out pizza and salada. I ordered the former and my friend ordered a
tomato salad.
You can imagine our surprise when a large
bowl of quartered ripe tomatoes arrived tossed with a light dressing. Talk
about a naked salad! We shared our lunch and both the pizza and tomatoes were
good. We sat at a stone table, as instructed, but now I can’t remember why that
was important to do.
The picturesque restaurant, nestled in the
foothill of a mountain, was landscaped with lovely tropical plants. When done we leisurely made our way back to
the bus stop. After waiting a fair amount of time I poked my head into a
small store to inquire what time the
next bus was due,
The last Saturday bus was due in 5-10
minutes. It did arrive, but we speculated what we might have done if we had been
stranded on the mountain---one very long trek back to town!
I never fail to smile when I remember that
memorable tomato salad and that hair-raising bus ride.
