TOMATO SALAD

                                           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.

THE GROTTO in LUGANO

                      Interesting Restaurant Experience

Lugano is the Italian part of Switzerland. The climate, geography, homes, language all are entirely different from the rest of the country. My travel buddy on that trip wanted to extend out stay and visit Lugano, and that was fine with me. Our guide  insisted that we should visit a certain grotto restaurant. He drew us a map, gave us directions and assured us they spoke English and accepted credit cards.

We were game. We took the city bus to Paradiso and walked the short distance to the gondola station to get to the top of  Mt San Salvador. We had a spectacular view and after walking a footpath to an old church and climbing a flight of stairs to the observation deck we had an even better 360-degree view above the tree line of the city and lake.

Back at street level we found our way to the post bus stop where we had a short wait for the bus. As we boarded the bus I showed the driver a card from the restaurant to make sure we were on the right bus.  Little did we know we were in for a hair-raising ride over a narrow switch-back, hairpin-turn road up, up, up! At one narrow overpass the driver had no more than an inch of space on either side of the bus. He was good!

The driver alerted us at the proper stop and pointed us in the right direction. It was a Saturday and we never thought to ask when the bus returned. We followed the cobblestone alley for quite a distance and I was beginning to wonder if we really were in the right place when around the next curve the grotto restaurant appeared. 

English—forget it. No one, even the other diners, spoke any English. The menu of course was in Italian, which neither of us spoke.  We had been told to sit at a stone table, but for the life of me I can’t remember the significance of why. But we did it anyway. We could figure out pizza and salad on the menu. I opted for the former and my buddy the latter. Both were good, but we were a bit surprised when the tomato salad arrived and  a large bowl of quartered tomatoes was set before us!. The setting was lovely, cool, picturesque with flowers and greenery everywhere.

We paid our bill and made our way back down the alley. The bus schedule was posted on the outside of the post office. It was a bit confusing so I walked next door to another restaurant and found an English-speaking gentleman who informed us the bus was due in five minutes; then the next and last bus would be 3-hours later.  Talk about unexpected good timing!

After an equal hair-raising ride down the mountain we were happy to be back in Paradiso where we decided to walk back along the waterfront to Lugano. It had been a fun day.