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.