It was time… Time to go for a little trip, escape from that work routine every day…

So where to go if you live in the north of Switzerland… Of course the south!

We went to the amazing Ticino (still Switzerland) to our favorite city there… Ascona.
So we booked a little sweet hotel nearby Ascona because there were no rooms left in the city (holiday time in Switzerland), packed our bags and go.

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A must go is the St. Gotthard mountain pass. If you go at the end of springtime it’s an epic ride. You start down in the valley with summer temperatures around 20-25 degrees Celsius drive up that pass to 2100m and end up there at 5 degrees and walls of snow… just breathtaking.

We rested up there for around an hour to get our drone up for some epic shots and enjoyed the epic landscape. Growing clouds fighting through the pass, cracking ice from the lakes… couldn’t be better.

After that little break, we drove down the pass straight to San Nazzaro where we booked our hotel. A tiny little boutique hotel Named Villa Sarnia with view on the lake. Perfect!
So take that bags and let’s go to the lake after that 3.5h ride.

Cabriolet time Claudia OPEN THAT ROOF 😀

The rest of the day was just relaxing, have some amazing pizza and enjoying the great sunset.

Day 2:

What to do when you have a hotel next to the lake Lago Maggiore… Of course.. Take a boat from Ascona Boat rental what else 😀 So we booked a little boat from a super friendly guy (that looks like a typical pirate just with the wrong clothes 😀 ) and drove out to Island Brissago.
Island Brissago is a little Botanique fairy tale magic island… yeah I think those are the right words to describe that little island. On top, you find a lovely villa where you can have some drinks and stuff (we didn’t) surrounded by the most diversity of plants we ever have seen. Yo can spend hours just wandering around on that small island through the tunnels of plants, giant palm trees, poison bushes and and and… After we discovered the island it was time to get back… yeah… did i tell you my (Bastian) boat driving skill especially landing the boat at the pier aren’t the best? 😀 Our pirate friend from the boat rental had a hard time getting us at the right position to exit the little boat 😀 But he was fine just laughing 😀 If you wanna rent a boat go to Ascona Boat rental (Link here). It’s around 60 Bucks for an hour ride definitely worth it.

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Because the day was running so fast, we weren’t that motivated to go for another trip for that day. So we decided to take some drinks and maybe… some of that good pizza the day before? 😀
We ended up at an epic fresh BBQ place called DaGina where I had the best lamb ribs ever and Claudia had some amazing steak with potato. Perfect ending to an amazing day!

Day 3: After we went a little late to bed the day before (not our fault… taking pictures at the evening was just to much fun 😀 ) we went to Valle Verzasca, an epic valley with a famous hobbit bridge (see here) with a little stop at the famous James Bond dam from the Goldeneye movie (not that interesting in our opinion but if you are interested in bungee jumping you definitely should go for it!!!).
Valle Verzasca is an amazing place for hiking, sunbathing and “swimming”. Swimming in ” ” because it’s a glacier river with some rough rapids aaaand so it’s very dangerous but beautiful AF. Blue perfect clear water with some spots without any tourists (at the hobbit bridge it is as good as impossible to find a spot to sit 😀 – go there but not for chilling! ). I recommend to park your car at the bridge, cross the bridge and then hike up (right-hand side when you cross the bridge) for 10-15 minutes. You will find amazing huge rocks where you can rest and sunbathe with as good as no other people just amazing!!!

We stayed there for the whole day and burned ourself as never before 😀 No Sunblocker + 30 degrees Celsius + windy… not the best combination 😀 But worth it in my opinion 😀

After a little hike back we went to Cannobio a little city at the Italian side of the lake for some dinner (much cheaper than in Ascona but not as good by far as in Ascona 😉. 2 Plates of pasta, some ice cream.

SO….

If you ever come to Switzerland in the summertime you shouldn’t miss Ticino! Of course go to Zurich, Lucerne, Bale, The Matterhorn and all that stuff but if you like Mountains, Lakes some Italian flair go down there and enjoy your time.

Live and Laugh, Be Gone.
Bastian&Claudia