Ticino of Swiss Cantons

Introduction

Ticino (German Tessin), the most southerly of the Swiss cantons, takes its name from the River Ticino, a left-bank tributary of the Po, which rises on the Nufenen pass (Passo della Novena), flows through Lake Maggiore and joins the Po after a course of 248km/154mi.

The canton has an area of 2,811 sq. km/1,085 sq. mi and a population of some 250,000. Its capital is Bellinzona, situated near the junction of the roads from the St Gotthard and the San Bernardino pass. The canton's main sources of revenue are agriculture and tourism. In the past, many German-speaking Swiss and Germans from the Federal Republic have settled in the canton, particularly by the lakes, which has led to a considerable change in the population structure. The indigenous population is almost exclusively Italian-speaking, but with a local dialect.

Its Different from Other Countries!!!!

The Italian-speaking canton of TICINO  occupies the balmy, lake-laced southern foothills of the Alps. It’s radically different from the rest of the country in almost every way: culture, food, architecture, attitude and driving style owe more to Milan than Zürich, and the famously sunny skies even draw in fog-bound Milanese for a breath of air. Every Swiss has their own favourite bit of the country – the mountain panorama above Interlaken, morning mist on Lake Luzern, perhaps the waterfront promenade at Vevey – but everybody loves the Ticino. The place is simply irresistible: a short train ride under the Alps and you can emerge in glittering sunshine to a tiny corner of the Italian Mediterranean that is forever Switzerland, peopled by expressive, stylish, hot-blooded folk as different from the stolid farmers of the north as they could possibly be. And it’s no wonder they’re hot-blooded. As an ethnic and linguistic minority of eight percent in their own country and nothing more than a quaint irrelevance to the city hotshots of Milan and Turin next door, the Ticinesi consistently have to struggle to get their voices heard in the corridors of power.

Natural Beauty

The glamour of their canton, and its stunning natural beauty – lushly wooded hills rising from azure water, date palms swaying against deep blue skies, red roofs framed by purple bougainvillea – often seem to blind outsiders with romance. And the German-speaking Swiss in particular fall head over heels for the Latin paradise on their doorstep. It takes just three hours from the grey streets of suburban Zürich to reach the fragrant subtropical gardens of Lugano, and from March till November German Swiss come in their thousands to sit beneath vine-shaded outdoor terraces of simple grotti or osterie (rustic local taverns) and choose polenta, risotto or herb-scented salads from bilingual Italian-German menus, sample a carafe of one of the dozens of varieties of Ticinese merlot, and still pay with francs at the end.

History

The territory of Ticino, occupied in the early historical period by Rhaetians and Lepontii, was later incorporated in the Roman province of Gallia Cisalpina. Between the fifth and eighth centuries it was successively occupied by the Goths, the Lombards and the Franks. In the 15th C. the Confederates gradually wrested it from the overlordship of the Dukes of Milan. It became an independent canton in 1803.

Independent & Absolute Swiss - Ticino

Although linguistically, culturally and temperamentally Italian, the Ticino has been controlled by the Swiss since the early 1500s, when Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden moved to secure the southern approaches of the Gotthard Pass against the Dukes of Milan. For three centuries the Ticinesi remained under the thumb of the tyrannical northerners, until Napoleon arrived in 1798 to reorganize the area under his new Cisalpine Republic. But faced with a mere exchange of overlords, the Ticinisi held out for independence, and under the banner “Liberi e Svizzeri!”, “Free and Swiss!”, the Republic of Ticino joined the Confereration as a new canton in 1803.

Since then, the Ticinesi – appearances notwithstanding – remain resolutely Swiss, and have little truck with foreigners calling them Italian, although it’s also almost impossible for an outsider to tell the locals apart from the 36,000 Italian frontalieri who cross into Ticino daily to work for salaries well below the Swiss average. A cruel irony of life here is that Ticino suffers Switzerland’s highest unemployment rates, even while its service industries thrive – staffed by Italians and paid for by thousands of Swiss-German tourists and second-homeowners. Similarly, young Ticinesi, who would naturally gravitate towards universities or jobs in nearby Milan, are forced by their lack of an EU passport to go north into culturally and linguistically “foreign” Switzerland instead. The reality behind Ticino’s glamorous front is a tale of fifty years or more of social dislocation and a draining, deep-rooted frustration with chiefly Swiss-German-inspired isolationism.

Popularity of Ticino

Architecture and design have been taken seriously for centuries past, with a string of world-class architects emanating from the Ticino from the Middle Ages onwards – among the contemporary crop, Mario Botta stands out (his most famous building is perhaps the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), along with Luigi Snozzi and Aurelio Galfetti. The tradition is now augmented by an Academy of Architecture, affiliated to Lugano’s brand-new Università della Svizzera Italiana, the first Italian-speaking university in the country, founded in 1996. Much time and money is devoted to architecture, with cities, towns and villages throughout the canton full of sympathetic, subtle restoration of ancient buildings. Kitschy Alpine chalets are confined to Oltre Gottardo, the locals’ somewhat disparaging term for the rest of Switzerland “beyond the Gotthard”.




Topography

Ticino is divided topographically in two by the modest Monte Ceneri range (1961m), two-thirds of the way down: the area to the north is the Sopraceneri (“Above Ceneri”), that to the south is Sottoceneri (“Below Ceneri”). The main attractions are the lakeside resorts of Locarno and Lugano, where mountain scenery merges with the subtropical flora encouraged by the warm climate, although the cantonal capital Bellinzona and the quiet valleys of Alto Ticino also hold a great deal of charm. Ticino is known, too, for its plethora of ancient churches in hamlets and villages across the canton, many of them Romanesque and containing medieval frescoes, and most also featuring huge external murals of St Christopher, patron saint of travellers.

Along the northern boundaries of Ticino are high-Alpine regions with their characteristic plants and animals. Farther south, Mediterranean vegetation increasingly predominates, flourishing particularly in the south-facing valleys. By the lakes, palms and citrus fruits are found. The animal life, particularly insects and reptiles, also shows clear Mediterranean characteristics.

The markedly southern orientation and the protection against influences from the region north of the Alps, which result from Ticino's geographical situation, are reflected also in the architecture of the houses and public buildings. In many places, the churches are built of natural stone without any external rendering, as in northern Italy, and the canton has a rich heritage of Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

Attractions

The main attractions are the lakeside resorts of Acona/Locarno and Lugano, where mountain scenery merges with the subtropical flora encouraged by the warm climate. The cantonal capital Bellinzona and the quiet valleys of Alto Ticino also hold a great deal of charm. Ticino is known for its ancient churches in hamlets and villages across the canton. Many of them are Romanesque and contain medieval frescoes, and most featuring huge external murals of St Christopher, the patron saint of travelers.


 
Ticino means mild climate, unique natural contrasts and varied landscapes. The Ticino River, which gives its name to the Canton, begins in the Gotthard Region amid steep gorges and deeply carved valleys. Ticino is divided into four regions: Bellinzona, Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano and the Mendrisiotto in the very south. Each region offers different and special scenery, and deserves to be explored. Ticino's flora is typified by the coexistence of plants of both Alpine and Mediterranean origin. It is the most interesting botanical region in Switzerland, for its subtropical climate. 2,300 hours of sunshine per year promote the growth of cypress, palm trees, camellias, mimosas and magnolias and chestnuts (just to list a few). Spring arrives earlier in Ticino and autumn lingers longer than in the rest of Switzerland. The Ticino lakes are the work of gigantic receding glaciers. Both the Lugano and Maggiore Lakes are shared with Italy. The sharp blue winter sky seems bigger through the lake's reflection; the early morning mists of spring which swirl above the lake are chased by the summer breezes, and in the autumn evenings, the explosive red of the setting sun mixes in the water with its pastel reflection. Ticino's mountains are characterized by steep ascents and sharp angles. Granite and, in some places, marble are quarried out of the cliffs. The alpine pastures are a special treat; mostly accessible only during the summer months. Water is an important element especially in the northern valleys where alpine springs and lakes are the source of great waterfalls and torrents.

Ticinese architects are internationally recognized and many contemporary objects can be seen in the urban as well as in the more rural areas. Some explain the high quality of many contemporary buildings in Ticino through the epic work of the migrant workers who, already in 643 AD, traveled all over Europe designing and constructing great buildings and whole cities.

Minor But Exquisite Beauty


ALTO TICINO

By far the most pristine part of this sometimes tiresomely touristic canton, the region of ALTO TICINO (Upper Ticino) north of Bellinzona is a haven of wild, lonesome valleys cutting deep into the landscape on the approach to the high Alps, dotted with rustic stone-built hamlets teetering on steep slopes. As throughout the rest of the canton – though less obtrusively here – many of the original Ticinese communities, which laboured so long to scrape a living from the land, are now financially enriched, if culturally challenged, by the presence of many German and Swiss-German second-home-owners seeking refuge from the pressures of city life. Biasca is the gateway to the region, a small town at the junction of the scenic Val Blenio – which heads north from Biasca up to Olivone,an utterly tranquil little place some 24km north of Biasca that reflects the valley’s once-noble pretensions in its array of grandiose, if worn, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mansions and villas – rather out of place amidst the orchards and increasingly wild high-valley scenery then cuts over to the Lucomagno Pass – and the main Valle Leventina, which bends northwest up to the foot of the Gottardo Pass and the quiet town of Airolo, where the rural Val Bedretto splits off west to the Novena Pass.

Val Blenio



Quiet Val Blenio cuts north from Biasca, off the main Leventina routes, a broad open valley that basks in generous sunshine and has limitless opportunities for walking exploration. The valley floor is dotted with villages, themselves marked by rustici, stone-built peasant dwellings, sometimes little more than shacks, that are topped with rough slate roofs. A lot of these are now holiday cottages, renovated and rented out for tidy sums to nature-starved northerners, but the valley has nonetheless made sure to protect its most valuable assets – peace, quiet and unspoilt natural beauty. Oddly enough, the Bleniesi have been known throughout Europe for centuries as foodie entrepreneurs, a skill probably picked up in Milan sometime in the Middle Ages and passed on through the generations.On the east bank just north of Biasca is Malvaglia, whose village church boasts a gigantic fresco of St Christopher; from here a tortuous branch road climbs in a series of hairpins into the lonesome gorge of the Val Malvaglia amidst tremendous scenery of steep wooded slopes dropping away into a seemingly bottomless ravine. From a point on the road, it’s possible to park and walk across a bridge spanning the valley, on the other side of which a dramatic mule track penetrates for a couple of hours’ walk to Dagro, a hamlet on the northern side of the valley with broad views.

Valle Leventina



From Biasca, the motorway, the main road and the train all blaze a trail northwest into the Valle Leventina, heading for the Gottardo Pass and tunnels at the end. There’s no doubt that this is a spectacular route, whether heading north or south, but its heavy usage is its downfall – hemmed in by the high valley walls, the hiss and rumble of traffic noise from the motorway can seem obtrusively loud to valley-floor walkers and cyclists. Giornico, a small lovely town , typical Ticinese village built on the gentle slopes either side of the tumbling River Ticino, with cobbled alleys running picturesquely between old stone-roofed houses, and a photogenic hump-backed bridge crossing to a wooded island mid-river, and from there to the west bank, where rises the campanile of the Chiesa di San Nicolao, one of the most impressive and atmospheric of Ticino’s many Romanesque churches. Its external walls are decorated with Lombardic designs, while inside is a fresco-decorated choir placed above a beautiful triple-apsed half-sunken crypt. Down an alley below the church is the Casa Stanga, an old house converted into the small Museo di Leventina , with a few rooms of diverting historical bits and bobs. More interesting is the concrete hangar in the fields 300m north of Giornico’s little train station. This vast, blank structure is in fact an art gallery, La Congiunta, dedicated to the sculpture of Zürich artist Hans Josephsohn – though you’d never know from the outside.




Walking in Ticino


A two-week walking Tour of Ticino explores the finest valleys and most remote landscapes in the upper part of the canton. The granite massifs of the Lepontine Alps, as these mountains are known, are among the least visited of any in Switzerland. You can wander for hours on end, even in the height of summer, and see no one, even while the lower valleys and the lakes of Maggiore and Lugano are thronged with holiday-makers. The scenery is charming: clear streams tumble through the valleys, numerous tarns flecked among the high plateaux add a sparkle to the crags, and deep green pools in hidden corners invite walkers to pause for a well-deserved midsummer bathe.

Biasca



The small town of BIASCA sits in a grand location at the junction of three valleys: the Valle Leventina, the Val Blenio and to the south towards Bellinzona a part of the River Ticino called the Riviera, which crams in side by side a motorway, a main road, a minor road, a train line and several footpaths, all snaking between wooded mountain sides rising 1500m above your head. High above the town to the southeast, commanding an eagle’s-eye view of all routes in and out, is the imposing thirteenth-century Chiesa di San Pietro e Paolo, with a sixteenth-century portico tacked on to its simple, Romanesque facade. Collect the key from the newer parish church halfway up the hillside. Inside, the irregular Romanesque floor plan – architects seem to have struggled with the sloping bedrock – is unchanged, and the interior walls are covered in an array of medieval frescoes.



The SOPRACENERI region takes in the whole of the northern two-thirds of the canton. Road and rail lines stream down from the Alpine tunnels, bypassing the Ticinese hinterland and funnelling into the cantonal capital Bellinzona, a quietly elegant place often passed over in favour of the lakeside resorts – the latter exemplified by shades-and-gelatiLocarno, revelling in its location at the tip of the idyllic Lago Maggiore. The real beauty, however, of this rugged region lies in the very hinterland that most people see hurtling past at 110kph. Unspoilt Alto Ticino, comprising a network of wild, pre-Alpine valleys and mountain-top lakelets glittering in clear, crystalline sunshine, holds some of the best walking in the country.



The SOTTOCENERI region south of Bellinzona and Locarno is much more developed than the Sopraceneri, with dozens of neat, prosperous towns crammed in between the narrowing international borders to east and west. The principal draw is the sophisticated and stylish city of Lugano, sited on a bay of the glorious Lago di Lugano, which twists out into Italy on both sides. Jutting out into the lake just a stone’s throw from the city is the sun-drenched Ceresio peninsula, dotted with idyllic Italianate country villages and crisscrossed by some of the loveliest easy walks in the canton.

The Major attractions are

• Ascona

An extremely beautiful situation in a mist-free bay on Lake Maggiore, sheltered from the north winds, and to its sub-tropical vegetation, Ascona has developed from a little fishing village into one of Switzerland's most popular holiday resorts, excellently equipped for visitors. It has long hours of sunshine and a mild winter. The main areas of activity from spring into autumn are the picturesque town, a pedestrian precinct with numerous little shops, art galleries and antique dealers, and the piazza on the lake.Ascona lies in a spectacularly sunny bay on Lake Maggiore. It is one of the most exclusive tourist destinations in Switzerland and boasts a beautiful lake promenade, boutiques, a welcoming Lido (public swimming pool), restaurants and magnificent walks in the surroundings. The Old Town of Ascona was built around the 16th century church of Pietro e Paolo and exerts a special fascination: an intricate web of lanes containing every kind of shop leads to the piazza, which lies directly on the lake. The panorama opens out over the lake where you will find cafes and restaurants in the sunshine.

• Bellinzona

Three important North-South routes - the roads over the Alpine passes of St Gotthard, San Bernardino and Lucomagno - meet in the valley of the Ticino, and could in the past be closed by a barrier across the road at Bellinzona. The town thus occupied a key strategic situation for many centuries, and this led to its selection as the cantonal capital in 1878. It is now an educational focal point as well as the seat of cantonal administration. The town is still dominated by its three castles, an impressive example of a medieval defensive system which, together with a double circuit of walls, were built by the town's Milanese rulers in the second half of the 15th C. The three castles are UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Each year the town of Bellinzona is the Rabadan Festival that attracts people from all over Switzerland and neighbouring Italy. The festival has been ongoing for over 150 years. The highlight is the evenings when thousands fill the streest of Bellinzona in colorful costumes.








The major attractions of Bellinzona are art gallery,castlegrande,castlegrande Museum, castello di Montebello,castello di sasso corbaro, civic art gallery,civic museum,collegiate church SS Pietro and stefano, old town, ravecchia, ticino-museum of art and popular culture.

• Lake Lugano

Lake Lugano , on the southern edge of the Alps, lies mainly within the Swiss canton of Ticino, the remainder being in the Italian province of Varese and Como. Lying at an altitude of 270 m/ 886ft, it has an area of 48.7 sq. km/19 sq. mi, with a maximum depth of 288 m/945ft. From the west end of the lake the River Tresa flows into Lake Maggiore. The climate already shows distinct Mediterranean characteristics.

• Lake Maggiore

Lake Maggiore, known to the Romans as Lacus Verbanus, is the second largest of the north Italian lakes (area 212 sq. km/82 sq. mi, length 60km/37mi, breadth 3-5km/2-3mi, greatest depth 372 m/1,221ft). Less intricately patterned than Lake Como and without the sheer rock faces of the northern part of Lake Garda, it nevertheless offers scenery of southern splendor.







The northern part of the lake, with the town of Locarno, is in Switzerland, but the greater part of it is in Italy, the east side belonging to Lombardy and the west side to Piedmont. The lake's principal tributaries are the Ticino and the Maggia to the north and the Toce on the west side. The river which flows out of the south end, having carved a passage through massive morainic walls, preserves the name of Ticino. The northern part of the lake is enclosed by mountains, for the most part wooded, while towards the south the shores slope down to the plain of Lombardy. In clear weather the water in the northern part of the lake is green, in the southern part deep blue. The climate is mild.

• Locarno

The old Ticenese town of Locarno is magnificently situated at the north end of Lake Maggiore, with country villas and gardens rising up the hillsides; the newer parts of the town are laid out in a regular pattern on the flat ground of the swiftly flowing River Maggia. With its mild climate, in which figs

• Lugano

Lugano, the "pearl of Lake Lugano", lies in a bay half-way down the lake, flanked by Monte San Salvatore and Monte Brè. It is the largest and most important town in Ticino, and the beauty of the town and its setting makes it one of Switzerland's most popular holiday resorts during the warmer months of the year. The architecture and way of life of Lugano show distinctly southern characteristics, as does the plant life.Lugano has a notably temperate climate, with plenty of sunshine of moderate intensity and mild air temperatures with little variation over the day.

Cars are best parked in the multi-story garages in the middle of town (signs). Trolley service between Paradiso and Castagnola, from Pregassone to Breganzona, from the center to Vezia, from the station to Viganello and Cornaredo. Local boat services to several destinations. Funicular (90 seconds) from the station to the old town (Piazza Cioccaro). Bus from Lugano to Brè-Dorf.



The Centovalli (100 valleys) is an area that begins behind Ascona. The name was given to a valley that offers a variety of landscapes extending east from the River Maggia Delta to the Italian border. Certainly one of the most attractive areas of Switzerland, the Centovalli is a paradise for hiking and biking alike and includes breath-taking gorges with sparkling waterfalls and bridges, colorful fields, vineyards, chestnut groves and sleepy little villages.




Sources:
www.planetware.com
switzerland.isyours.com
www.magicswitzerland.com