In Cannobio.

A Sunday on Lago Maggiore.

Last weekend I left cold and gloomy Zürich behind to chase the sun, and ended up, again, in Ticino. It was raining so hard on my train ride south that I couldn't even see out the window! And, just like magic, it was clear and sunny on the other side of the Gotthard. It never ceases to amaze me how stark of a change it always is: pouring on one side, then 10 minutes in a tunnel in the dark, and sun on the other (or vice versa).

I arrived late on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning, Stef (who is always so gracious to host me!) and I took a boat ride from Locarno down to Cannobio, a town just on the other side of the border with Italy. This town is famous for its lakeside market on Sundays, so we thought we would check it out. The market was huge and crowded, but, despite the crowds, it was really fun to stroll in the sun, soaking up the sights and sounds and seeing what the vendors had to offer. We got some little gifts, I found a wallet (after searching for one that I liked the past 6 months), and we got some amazing cheese and fresh pasta. We spent the whole morning at the market, and then were picked up by Stef's mom when we were done, since we had just missed our bus.

We spent the afternoon at Stef's family's house, having gelato on the terrasse and playing with the dog, Cali. I had borrowed a guidebook on Normandy from the Kuchlers, and we compared notes on traveling.

Stef and I caught a bus back to her place, and had an early dinner (of fresh pasta that we had picked up from the market, yum!) before I had to catch my train. And then, back again, to the cold and foggy north.

It was a really enjoyable 24-hour trip into Ticino. Every time I visit, I love it!

A Sunday in Italy.

I spent the day with Stefanie in Cannobio, Italy (a town just over the border), soaking up the sun and shopping at a market there. So much fun!

Chasing the sun into Italy.

One day during our stay in the Wallis, the weather was definitely not so nice- cloudy and threatening rain at any moment, so we decided to seek adventure in a non-hiking manner.

Our first stop was Brig, which is a bigger small town in the Wallis. On our arrival, we realized that it was a Catholic holiday, Maria Ausname in dem Himmel (or something like that), so essentially everything was closed and the town was dead. We did, however, get to peek around the gardens of the Stockalperschloss, a castle built in the 1700's by a wealthy businessman.

They had some really pretty roses, which I was quite excited about!

However, once I had photographed every single rose in the garden, we were somewhat at a loss of what to do. So we decided to go over the Simplon Pass and in to Italy.

Bridge along the road.

Once over the pass, the temperature went up 20 degrees and the sun appeared again! We stopped at Stresa, on Lago Maggiore to walk around the lake and have some gelato before heading back to Switzerland to get over the pass before dark. The drive was really one of the most beautiful of the trip, with steep mountain gorges and really interesting rock formations. I'd love to hike there sometime!

Lake Como, the Fabulous Alps, an Evening in France, and Germany on a Whim

I loved Lake Como and thought it was my favorite place until I saw the Swiss Alps. Not that Lake Como is not pretty, by any means, but I love the Alps.

We had one leisurely day in Lake Como in which we toured the Villa Carlotta and its amazing gardens, and otherwise had a wonderful and relaxing time doing nothing and enjoying the lake.

The next day we were off for the Swiss Alps. We spent most of the day enroute, but the scenery was well worth it. We stayed in a little town call Lauterbrunnen, which is a 20 minute train ride from Interlaken. The valley that our apartment was in has 72 waterfalls, and I think we could see at least 15, including one that was a 10 minute walk away. The mountains and cliffs soared all around us, and we could see the snow-covered Jungfrau at one end of the valley.

The green hills and valley were dotted with cute Swiss chalets with cows and windowboxes and tidy gardens. It was beautiful! It unfortunately had a tendancy to rain all the time while we were there, which put a damper (hehe) on some of our plans. We did visit a chocolate school one rainy afternoon, and we also hiked up to Trömmelbach Falls, which are enourmous waterfalls that pour through caverns in the mountain that are draining from three different glaciers. The falls were super cool because you got to go into the caverns in the mountain where the huge waterfalls were; if you were in the valley you would have no idea that such a huge waterfall is there because it is mostly in the mountain. We did not do any other big activities, but it was so nice to relax and to walk around the village and valley.


It was also interesting because the Swiss are my kind of people- neat and tidy and on time. Compared the other other places that we have visited, everything was so tidy- the yards and the houses, and everything was super on time. In Spain a train left on time if it was out within 5 or so minutes of the posted time. In Switzerland, if the train left more than 5 seconds after the posted time you wondered what was going on.

We left our parents and Marie yesterday; they are heading home, and we have three more weeks left for our European adventures. We took a train to Colmar, France, which is a super cute small town with half-timbered houses. On the way, we decided to skip going to the South of France (because the tours we wanted to go on were cancelled), and instead head to Munich to see the Disney Castle, and then head to Paris a few days early to make sure that we see everything we want to.

Hence, I am posting from an internet cafe in Munich. We have been up since 4 AM to make our trains, and in Munich we have seen free concerts and protests about lab animals (complete with a coffin and pallbearers and people in animal costumes) and lots of beer gardens. Tomorrow we will tour the Neuschwanstein Castle, and then who knows?

We will keep you posted and hopefully will get pictures up sometime. Hope you all had a great 4th of July!

The Mondo Post: The End of Rome, Florence Rambles, Venice Cruising, and Lake Como Peace

Ruth told me that this post needed to come with a disclaimer, so here it is: I hope you’ve eaten your Wheaties this morning, because it’s going to be a long one! Also, some of my older posts have been updated with more pictures, and I would suggest checking out Ruth's blog if you haven't because she has some more photos.

(These are the popes shrubs above! Hooray for shrubberies!)

To finish off Rome… We finally got in to the Vatican Museum on Tuesday (after waiting in line for about 2 hours) and saw the Sistine Chapel and lots of other art- maps, Raphael’s walls, sculpture up the wazoo, mummies, artifacts, modern religious art, etc. Supposedly there are four miles of art to wander around at the Vatican, and I think we definitely saw it all before ending up at the Sistine Chapel. The Chapel was impressive and beautiful, and it was crazy to see these iconic paintings in person.

Rome itself was a surreal experience. There’s something bizarre and really cool about taking a taxi home at night and passing through the ancient walls of Rome and over the Tiber River, and seeing the Forum and the Coliseum and the Vatican and St. Peter’s all lit up.

On our last night there we experienced Rome at its best- at dusk and as the moon rose. It had cooled down, and the moonlight softened the ugly parts and made the whole city more beautiful. We retraced some of our tour from Monday- we climbed the Spanish steps, chucked our coins in the Trevi Fountain as it was all lit up (to ensure that we come back to Rome), watched the moon rise over the Pantheon while enjoying some of the best gelato in Rome, and watched the artists at work on the Piazza Nouvona. It was the perfect way to end our stay in Rome.

On Wednesday we went to Pisa for the day on our way to Florence. The train ride from Rome to Pisa was gorgeous- we were riding along the Mediterranean coastline, and the sea had about a million distinct shades of blue and green. The train station at Pisa was not so beautiful- we saw someone fall underneath a train as it was entering the station, which was horrifying. The screams and the chaos that ensued were crazy, and it made me incredibly thankful for the safe travels that we have had. We later found out that she had died...

After getting out of the station as the ambulance arrived, we wandered the streets of Pisa and climbed the leaning tower. It was difficult to stay balanced while climbing and descending slippery marble stairs that tilt, but really exciting to think that I was where Galileo had been and had done some of his research. From there, we headed off to Florence and wandered the streets around the Duomo and historic Florence in the evening.

On Thursday we toured Florence, visiting the David and Ponte Vecchio. Ponte Vecchio is a bridge lined with shops that sell silver and gold, with great views of Florence on the river. Local men take padlocks and attach them to the bridge and throw the key into the river to symbolize their undying love for their significant other; hence, there were lots of padlocks on the bridge. We also toured the gardens on the grounds of the Pitti Palace. The gardens had lovely views of Florence, a plethora of statues, and some beautiful fountains, which I very much enjoyed. We also escaped the tour groups, which was very exciting.

We spent the afternoon and evening in Siena, which is a smaller, out-of-the-way town in Tuscany. The ride there was gorgeous, with villas and vineyards and sunflower fields and olive trees and rolling hills- just like the pictures of Tuscany. We rambled around the city, climbed the bell tower for lovely views of the city and countryside, picnicked on Il Campo (the main square of Siena where everyone hangs out), and generally experienced life in a small Italian town with fewer tourists. The square was all set up for the Palio, which is a horse race that is held once a year in Siena, where all of the neighborhoods compete against each other in a race around the square. The square had a ring of dirt around it, mattresses padding the corners, and bleachers set up all around for viewing. We missed the actual race by a few days, but it was cool to see everything all set up. We saw some photos from the race in previous years, and it looks like it would be crazy. There really are no rules, so jockeys will hit each other and rider-less horses can win. Looks like fun!

We enjoyed our ride back to Florence, as it was at sunset and just generally beautiful. We had a little bit of excitement, since our bus driver was texting throughout the trip, but we made it safely back.

On our last day in Florence we spent the morning bartering and generally making out like bandits at the central market in Florence, which had anything and everything you could ever want. We hopped on our train to Venice, and then had a beautiful ride through some mountains to Venice.

Venice is lovely and watery and old. We cruised the Grand Canal on our way to the hotel and saw gondolas and old palaces and caught a glimpse of St. Mark’s and enjoyed the Venice ambience with about a million other people. It still was charming, despite the teeming hordes. In the evening, we explored the side streets of Venice- the rambling canals and cute bridges. We managed to find a relatively quiet neighborhood and had a peaceful supper in a garden. Hooray for gardens! We bus-boated back to our hotel, enjoying the lit up canal at night.

The bus system is really a bunch of mondo boats that cruise back and forth on the canal with river-side “stations.” It is quite slow, but a good way to see Venice, and really the only way to get where you want to go. It’s really amusing to see DHL boats and food boats and to see teenagers out cruising with loud music at night in their power boats.

On our full day in Venice, we did a grand tour, boating around the islands some more, seeing the glass blowing that Venice is so famous for, visiting some of the famous bridges: the Rialto and the Bridge of Sighs, seeing San Marcos Square, and wandering around the streets and canals and parks that are so pretty. We even managed to find a residential neighborhood where we could rub elbows with locals and almost no tourists.

I also managed to have a hugely Venetian experience… We had lunch on a little square, and the pigeons started attacking in swarms. (You don’t need to go to San Marcos to see pigeons- they’re everywhere!) They were even pecking my feet, so I started shooing them away with my feet- and ended up punting one quite soundly! It was quite satisfying. Score: Sarah 1, Pigeons 0. Of course, then I started laughing so hard that a) everyone looked and b) the pigeons were all scared away for real. But it truly is a strange sensation to kick a pigeon…

Yesterday we spent most of the day (my birthday!) traveling from Venice to Lezzano on Lake Como. It involved boats and trains and buses, and was quite an experience. Lake Como is one of the most beautiful places on earth- a gorgeous lake surrounded by huge, steep mountains that are dotted with villas and otherwise covered with trees. Because the mountains are so steep and the roads have to be carved out of the rock, the roads are incredibly narrow and windy- often they are only wide enough to allow for one car. As a result, the bus ride was quite an experience. The driver would honk on the curves where it is impossible to see if anyone was coming to say that he was coming and that he was going to go where only one car could go. A lot of times the cars and motorcycles didn’t believe him, so we would pretty much be stuck until the smaller cars moved on. And then we’d go careening on down the windy road.

We had supper on the water last night, just enjoying the gorgeous scenery. We also watched a thunderstorm roll in over a 20 minute period- the lightning was amazing on the lake. I also love thunderstorms, so it was the perfect way to end my birthday.

And thus ends the saga for now… We’re going to enjoy relaxing at Lake Como for a little bit, since we’ve pretty much been going straight through for a while. Hope you’re all doing well!