Ticino
Palm trees on the Swiss side.
Ticino is the part of Switzerland where Switzerland speaks, eats and lives Italian — with Swiss trains, Swiss prices and Swiss order. A contradiction that works.
Ascona sits at the northern end of Lake Maggiore, where the Alps fall into the water. Palms on the promenade, granite in the lanes, and above it Monte Verità, where a hundred years ago dropouts, dancers and anarchists tried out their utopia. Something of it has remained.
The valleys behind — Verzasca, Maggia — are the counter-programme: stone houses, emerald water, medieval bridges. Half an hour from the lake and you're in another time.
Ticino is the south you reach without leaving Switzerland.
We come to Ticino in April, when it's still winter in Zurich and the camellias are blooming in Ascona. It's the fastest spring Switzerland has to offer. Giardino Ascona is a house that takes the south seriously: garden, pool, Mediterranean cooking, but with the precision you expect north of the Alps. A place to stay, not to pass through. Drive into the Verzasca valley on a weekday, early. At weekends it belongs to Milan.
