[travel] The Switzerland-Italy phase shift

[mattbell]

Phase shifting.

When I was 18 and spending a summer running around Europe, I enjoyed the shock value of taking night trains between Switzerland and Italy so much that I did so several times. The stereotypes of Switzerland and Italy are cultural polar opposites in just about every way – clean/dirty, organized/disorganized, reserved/gregarious, low corruption / high corruption, secretive / wide open, uptight/laidback. It's a social transition, though there are certainly visual elements to it.

This time, I did the train ride during the day. The scenery was absolutely stunning, as the Swiss more or less constantly had to either use bridges or tunnels for a good 200km of the route. I sat, patiently waiting to slide across the Swiss/Italian continuum. It ended up being somewhat discontinuous. At Lugano, a city that at least from the train rivaled Santorini in natural beauty, a gaggle of Italian speakers entered the train and it was instantly livened up, much to the chagrin of the curmudgeonly British vacationers across from me. (They're going to Florence. Good luck with that.)

So a few days later I went back to check out this little transition point. For you bay area folk, Lugano is like an Italian version of Sausalito, run efficiently by the Swiss, and with much more mountainous terrain. (For the rest of you, Sausalito is a pricey but cute and chill seaside town across the bridge from San Francisco) It's balmy enough that palm trees can grow naturally here, lending the plae a vaguely tropical feel. It's quite possibly the best of both worlds... Italian food and liveliness with Swiss beauty and efficiency.

Comments

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

From my quick Google maps search to find out whether Lugano is technically in Switzerland or Italy, I discovered that there's a small area right across the river that belongs to Italy, but is surrounded by Swiss territory on all sides. There are more of these little enclaves than I realized! (The most recent one I learned of was a bit of Kentucky that is trapped between Missouri and Tennessee - that one exists because Missouri is defined by the Mississippi, while the KY/TN border is defined by a latitude, and one bend in the river happens to cross that latitude.)

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

Swewt. I imagine a lot of this stuff comes up at the negotiating table -- eg they think they have everything divided and then realize there's no way the residents of that little town would go for being in Switzerland!

[geheimnisnacht.livejournal.com]

Good summary. I was in Lugano back in September, noticing the same things. Did you ride a funicular to any of the nearby peaks? Nice views to be had.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

I didn't. It was closed for the day, so I did a combination of public us and walking to go about halfway up. I also figured I should save my $ and spend it to go to the really high peaks like the one in Lucerne.