Lugano, Switzerland 🇨🇭

Lugano is a city in southern Switzerland in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino bordering Italy. It has a population (as of December 2017) of 63,494, and an urban agglomeration of over 145,000. The ninth largest Swiss city, it is the largest in Ticino and largest with an Italian speaking majority outside of Italy. The city lies on Lake Lugano, surrounded by the mountains of the Lugano Prealps. The eastern part of the city shares a border with Italy.

Lugano is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Switzerland. The city is home to a number of historic buildings and museums, whilst the surrounding area has many natural sights.

Both Lake Lugano and the surrounding mountains provide a wide variety of outdoor activities. The area surrounding Lugano is home to over 300 kilometres (190 mi) of mountain biking trails, the largest net of 

There are 17 sites in Lugano that are part of the Swiss heritage site of national significance. The city of Lugano, the districts of Barbengo, Brè, Gandria and Biogno, and the sites of Cantine di Gandria and Castagnola are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

The heritage sites of national significance include two libraries, the Biblioteca Cantonale and the Biblioteca Salita dei Frati as well as the Swiss National Recording Archives (Fonoteca nazionale svizzera). There were three churches; Cathedral of San Lorenzo, Church of Santa Maria degli Angioli and the Church of San Rocco.

There were three museums; the Museo Cantonale d'Arte [de], the Museo cantonale di storia naturale di Lugano [it] and the Villa Ciani complex with the 'Museo civico. The cemetery complex at via Trevano is also one of the sites, as is the Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RTSI) Italian-language broadcast facility. The rest of the sites are notable houses throughout the city. They include; the Palazzo civico at piazza della Riforma, the Palazzo e cinema Corso at via Pioda, the Palazzo Riva at via Francesco Soave, the Palazzo Riva at via Massimiliano Magatti, the Palazzo Riva at via Pretorio 7 and Villa Favorita in Castagnola.

A very popular destination in Lugano is Lake Lugano. The lake is 48.7 square kilometres (18.8 sq mi) in size, 63% of which is in Switzerland and 37% in Italy. It has an average width of roughly 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) and is nearly 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) at its widest. The maximum depth of the lake is 279 meters (915 ft). The water is generally warm with average water temperatures in the summer ranging from 19.5 °C (67.1 °F) to 24.0 °C (75.2 °F).^[59]

Several companies, including the Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano (SNL), provide tourist boat services on the lake. A popular excursion is by SNL boat to the picturesque lakeside village of Gandria. Additionally there are numerous shipyards, water taxis and boat rental sites along the lake, as well as hotels and restaurants that offer moorings. Bathing in the lake is allowed at any of the 50 or so bathing establishments located along the Swiss shores.^[59][60]

In addition to the lake, Lugano is surrounded by mountains, which provide a number of opportunities for sports or sightseeing. Two mountains, both providing excellent views over the city and lake, bracket each end of the city's waterfront. Monte Brè (933 metres (3,061 ft)), to the north, is reputedly Switzerland's sunniest spot and is also home to the old village of Brè. Monte San Salvatore (912 metres (2,992 ft)), to the south, has an old church and museum atop its summit. Both mountains are accessible by funicular railways, which are themselves easily accessible by frequent city bus or by car.

Slightly further afield is Monte Generoso (1,704 metres (5,591 ft)), with a view that encompasses the lakes of Lugano, Como and Maggiore, as well as the Alps from the Matterhorn to the Bernina Range, the Lombardy Plains, and, on a clear day, the city of Milan. The summit can be reached by taking either an SNL boat, or a railway train, to Capolago, and changing there onto a rack railway train of the Monte Generoso Railway.

Buildings

• St. Lawrence Cathedral (9th and 15th century)
• St. Mary of the Angels Church (16th century) with the fresco of the Christ's Passion from Bernardino Luini
• Parco civico – Villa Ciani
• Piazza della Riforma
• Villa Favorita
• San Rocco Church

Museums

• LAC (Lugano Art and Culture), the cultural centre dedicated to visual arts, music and performing arts
• Museo delle Culture (Museum of Cultures)
• MASI (Art Museum of Southern Switzerland)
• Foundation Aligi Sassu and Helenita Olivares
• Historical Museum
• Cantonal Museum on Natural History
• Swiss Customs Museum
• Municipal Art Museum
• Wilhelm Schmid Museum
• Hermann Hesse Museum
• Alprose Chocolate Museum (Chocoland)

Lugano is served by Lugano Airport, in the nearby municipality of Agno. Currently, only Silver Air and Swiss Airlines operate to Lugano Airport. While there is limited service to Lugano's airport, Milan's airports are not that far away and provide access to a greater number of worldwide locations.^[23]

Lugano's railway station is situated on the historically and concurrently important Gotthard railway line, which links northern Switzerland with Ticino and Italy. Long distance trains of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), together with international trains of Trenitalia, connect Lugano with the cities of northern Switzerland and with southern Milan.

Since the inauguration of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in 2016 train connections between cities in Northern Switzerland, such as Zürich, Luzern and Basel, and cities in the south, such as Bellinzona, Lugano, and Milan got even closer – they almost entirely circumvent the Alps.

In the future, connections to Bellinzona and the northern Swiss cities will even further improve with the opening of the Ceneri Base Tunnel in 2020.

A two-hourly RegionalExpress RE connects Lugano with the local towns and villages on the historic Gotthard route with the northern ones on the other side of the Ceneri, such as Bellinzona and Biasca, where the fast trains enter the world's longest railway tunnel in order to underpass the Alps, and further up through the Valle Leventina up to Airolo and through the old Gotthard Tunnel (1,151 metres (3,776 feet)) to the German-speaking northern villages in Uri as far as Erstfeld.

Lugano is also served by several lines of regional trains of the Treni Regionali Ticino Lombardia (TILO) network which operate in the canton of Ticino and northern Lombardia, Italy.

Since August 2018 TILO's S50 connects Bellinzona and Lugano with Malpensa Airport once every hour with a travel time of 1:45h from/to Lugano.

The S10 service connects Lugano once every half hour with the local towns and villages on the historic Gotthard route between southern Chiasso and northern Bellinzona.

The RegionalExpress RE10 connects Lugano and Chiasso with Milano Centrale railway station in addition to the international long-distance trains in order to provide a fast connection once every hour; sometimes prolonged upwards to Bellinzona and Airolo, or even Erstfeld.

Additionally, the metre gauge (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in gauge) Lugano-Ponte Tresa Railway (FLP) connects Lugano as the S60 from platform 11 outside the main building with the regional Lugano Airport and Ponte Tresa.

From April until mid October, the tourist oriented Gotthard Panorama Express connects Lucerne with Lugano once a day via boat on the Lake Lucerne and then per train over the historic Gotthard route through the old, 500 metres (1,600 ft) higher situated Gotthard Tunnel.

Lugano is also served by three funicular railways. The Funicolare Città–Stazione, which has recently been renewed, is a short line connecting Lugano railway station to the lower city centre at the lake, whilst the Funicolare Monte Brè and the Funicolare Monte San Salvatore ascend nearby hills to vantage points.

A fourth funicular, the Funicolare degli Angioli, still exists but has not operated since 1986.

Lugano is located along the A2 motorway, a part of the European route E35 which over 1,600 km (990 mi) between Amsterdam and Rome.

The Trasporti Pubblici Luganesi (TPL) operate frequent inner city buses throughout Lugano and some of its closer neighbours.

The Autolinee Regionali Luganesi (ARL) runs buses connecting Lugano with the districts of Davesco, Sonvico and the towns of Canobbio, Lamone and Tesserete, whilst the Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano (SNL) runs buses to the district of Gandria and Campione d'Italia. TPL, ARL and SNL services operate from the Lugano Centro bus station. Longer distance buses, as well as some local buses, are operated by PostBus Switzerland, known locally as the AutoPostale. Its Palm Express service connects Lugano railway station to St. Moritz. Other AutoPostale buses operate from an underground bus station and ticket office, located at Via Balestra 4 in the centre of Lugano. ASF Autolinee, an Italian bus company, operates an international bus route from Lugano to Menaggio, on the shores of Lake Como. Boats of the Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano provide services on Lake Lugano. Whilst these are principally provided for tourist purposes, they also connect Lugano with other lake-side communities. Several of the landing points are within the sparsely populated section of the city that lies on the east side of lake, and have no road access.