Lugano, Switzerland

It's an overcast morning as we cross the lake to Menaggio where we will catch the bus to Lugano. We come over early so everyone could spend an hour looking around the plaza and shops. Lynn and I had been here last week so we each wandered off on our own for a little quiet time before getting on the bus.

Your neighbourhood corner store called a Tabaccheria.....literal translation means a "tobacconist shop" but it is a general merchandise store with a meat and cheese counter, canned and packaged goods, a huge selection of wine, even an old fashioned candy counter.

A pizza delivery car? maybe, it certainly looks like one.

We meet back at the plaza and walk to the main bus stop to ensure we will all get on one bus. Immediately we climb away from the lake with hairpin curves which make the bus have to stop and back up to let the downhill bus get around the corner. More twists and turns and tunnel after tunnel as we cross over to Lake Lugano.

We are waved through the "Dogano" the border, at the end of a long tunnel. We are in Switzerland and even the colours have changed. No more warm Italian colours.

Even with today's technology with cel phones there are still a lot of phone boothes. Saw lots of them but nobody was ever using them. They still looked pristine, no graffiti or signs of destruction at all. This was a city bus that looked more like a fast train.

We found another book shop that had art supplies and a beautiful supply of hand made paper. We didn't find any supplies we needed but I bought a few sheets of paper in what I call my Italian colours.

Another plaza, another cappuccino and some more sketching. "Manor " was a huge department store housed in part in an old building and next door a large modern section. It reminded me of when I was a child and I would go "downtown" Vancouver with my mother on Saturdays. We would go to Woodwards and the food departments were downstairs. We would sit at the counter and have toasted shrimp sandwiches. Very much the same set up in this store.

It was amazing how a one hour bus trip could quickly bring about so many changes. When buses and trains were late in Italy, we were told "this is Italy" with the hand gestures to go with the statement. Now we are in Switzerland and everything runs with the precision of a "Swiss watch".

 

 

We missed catching up with our group who sat and sketched the wrought iron gate looking over the lake. I drew my version from the Facebook picture that was posted. Not truly in the "Jane's World" style but done nevertheless.

We are on the 4:00 bus back to Bellagio. It has been a long day, probably our least exciting experience to date. I am still feeling punky with my cold but am happy to have found my Ricola's. They are my best cough drop when at home. It is funny to buy them in Switzerland and get them in a hinged tin that I have been looking for to make a small palette for my gouache paints.

We do not feel like making the effort to go out for dinner. Our hotel has a little 'hot dog' window on the plaza side so we went down and got cheeseburgers, Italian style, they even had mayo on them, some potato chips and went up to our room. I am a happy camper. In my pyjamas with a glass of wine and an easy, peasy dinner. As we sat on our beds working on our journals another huge thunder and lightning storm lit up the night sky for hours. It was the music I went to sleep with.

 

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