Rick and I were both still tired and sore from our long hike up in Cimadera the previous day, but as it was another beautiful day, we decided to try a shorter, easier walk.
In the town of Caslano, down the lake near Ponte Tresa and the border with Italy, there is also Monte Caslano, or also called, Monte Sassalto (Mt. Tall Rock). It is a 500 meter high mountain jutting out into the water as a peninsula. It was formed this way because its rock is so hard that the glaciers just went around it. It is a Swiss natural park, as it has almost every type of plant found in Ticino.
My only previous experience with Caslano had been 10 years ago, when we visited the Alprose chocolate factory in the industrial area of the town. My advice is to bypass a visit to this chocolate factory! Did not have a good experience. So.... I thought Caslano was mostly industrial and nothing special - oops! I was wrong! We had a wonderful day!
We took the Ponte Tresa train (FLP) from the Lugano station and got off in Caslano, about 20 minutes away. The station is not near the heart of the town, like in most places. We had to walk about 15 minutes to the lake.
The lakefront in Caslano was beautiful, with a park and also restaurants with outside seating. There is a tourist office there and we picked up a map and began our walk - it's 1 hour 10 minutes around the mountain alongside the lake. Warning - - no bathroom stops available around the lake!
The path around the mountain. The lake is down on the right. The cliffs are quite sheer and high around this mountain!
Another view of the path around the Monte Sassalto. It really was an enjoyable walk, with only a little up and down.
At this point, Italy comes very close to Switzerland. That is Italy on the other side of the lake.
We are at an area on the other side of the mountain called Torrazza, where the lake becomes like a canal between Switzerland and Italy. This town right across the straight is Lavena. A bridge was never built because if there were a bridge, they would have to have a customs station. It's much closer than it looks in this panoramic!
As we continue around, the lake opens up a little more. This is the end of Lake Lugano at Ponte Tresa, across the lake in this view. If you continue through the valley straight ahead in this picture, you will come to Luino, Italy, on Lake Maggiore.
This area is called Torrazza because there is this old tower furnace, which was used in mining lime.
We arrive back in the old nucleo of Caslano, where I found this cute courtyard scene.
This restaurant - Osteria Debarcadero, along the lake in Caslano was so inviting.... we decided to have lunch! They had their menu of the day posted, which is usually a good price - in this case 19 francs. (remember, that includes tax and tip). There were 2 choices, so we each took a different choice. Oh boy, and they say meals are large in the US!! Well, we finished everything - it was absolutely delicious and we hope to return for another lunch!
We each had 3 courses. My course were: penne pasta with a tomato sauce with olives (so so so good!), then I had a breaded veal with roasted potatoes and zucchini. Then a dessert of caramel panna cotta. Rick's first course was a large salad with a great mixture of ingredients (I say this because it's often hard to find a good salad with variety here). Then he had a large Hawaiian pizza, and then also the panna cotta.
After all that it was a good thing we had a 15 minute walk back to the train!
Later on the same day we had been invited to the home of our friends, Roberto, Giovanna, and Damien. We were having an aperativo on their back patio when we noticed a group from the Swiss army hiking by! At about 19-20 years old all Swiss young men are required to complete 1 year of army training.
I guess we were well protected that evening!
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