This covers a trip to Switzerland and northern Italy with Overseas Adventure Travel.
After a flight that was Maui -> LAX -> NYC -> Zurich, I took a train and Uber across town to meet with my joy buddy, Kerstin Colon, who is now working in Germany. I arrived a day before the trip started so that we could connect.
With Kerstin in Zurich
A tenacious vine climbing out of the concrete to scale this building.
Tigers welcomed me for the start of the trip.
The next day, it was on to Lucerne to join the tour.
The old and the new of Swiss trains in Zurich.
Tower and wooden bridge that crosses Lake Lucerne.
Decorated roof supports of the bridge.
The other side of the river with the town wall in the background.
Lakeside dining in Lucerne.
The Rosengart Collection in Lucerne includes this Matisse (with no color!) as well as works by Picasso, Modigliani and Paul Klee.
The Swiss Museum of Transport included gondolas, planes, trains, and cars – a great collection for an engineer to peruse …
… and also a Red Bull Formula 1 tire changing play station.
Now, on to Bern:
Hilltop view of Bern.
Swiss tour guide Damiano with Einstein.
Bern street leading to the clock tower.
Waterfall on the way to Zermatt.
Initial view of the Matterhorn from Zermatt.
Instead of going to the Matterhorn (which I saw 45 years ago from the Italian side while skiing at Cervinia) with everyone else, I went to an alternative Mountain, Gornergrat, for this view. The cogwheel train ride to this point was the only time my train or bus tickets were checked in Switzerland or Italy.
Cogwheel Track
Dinner in a 500-year old (probably older) building in Murten, Switzerland, with my fellow Swiss travelers: Ann, Gary, Helen, Barry (2), Me, Linda, Barry (1), Dick.
And, onward to Italy, first with a stop at Orta San Giulio:
And then on to Lecco, on the eastern leg of Lake Como.
View from my hotel room in Lecco.
Evening on Lake Como.
Map of Lombardy, the first area of Italy we will be in, from Ale (Alessandra), our Italian tour guide.
More data from Ale
Ale Italian humor
Lecco waterfront with war memorial and Ferris wheel (not operating but lighted at night.)
Our boat for a lake cruise.
On the water!
A lakeside town we cruised by.
A day in Milan:
The Galleria in Milan – the world’s first shopping center (from the 1870’s) and Prada’s first store location.
On the roof of the Milan Cathedral
Inside the cathedral
After lunch, we were off to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. This was a bit of a letdown for me since you have to be about 15 feet away so can’t see details and the whole viewing is quite commercialized and strictured.
There is much more to see and explore
in Milan but that will be for a future trip.
Leaving Lecco, we stopped at Varenna, another charming lakeside town.
Barry and Ale (Alessandra, our Italian tour guide) at the Varenna Biological Gardens.
The church in Varenna is from the 1300’s, with paintings during the next two centuries.
We ended the day in Tirano
But the next morning, we we went up to the 200-person hillside hamlet of Baruffini.
View of the valley from Baruffini
Woodworking shop of a retiree in Baruffini
Ale demonstrates how buckwheat was carried in from the fields
Prepping for lunch at Baruffini
Our main course (as provided by Ale). One of my favorite foods in Italy … especially since I could eat it with my hands!
Ale is pulled into after-lunch entertainment by Fulvio, the Baruffini community leader.
Claudio, our chef for the day (and a headwaiter at St. Moritz, a 45-minute drive from Baruffini) takes a turn at the entertainment.
View of Baruffini from Tirano
Back in Tirano for more exploring
For a ride on the Bernina Express train, Damiano was our guide and showed up disguised as a wolf!
I rode the Bernina Express to Alp Grum although others went a few stops further for a gondola ride (I wasn’t doing gondolas for most of the trip).
Views from the Bernina Express climbing through the alps are lovely and, at one point, the rails do a 360-degree turn to continue up the mountain.
Leaving Tirano, we visited the Bersi Serlini winery in the Franciacorta region.
Then we were on to Lake Iseo for the night.
But the next morning we were off to Brescia to look at Roman ruins (the brown segments are repairs) …
… and humorous city art …
… another grand cathedral and …
… meet a violin maker.
Then back to Lake Iseo for the evening.
The castle at Desenzano del Garda
Atop the castle with Lake Garda in the background – one of the few times we had any rain on the trip.
At the Manestrini olive oil mill in Soiano
Our next section of north Italy
Ending the day in Trento, this is a view down the hotel staircase
The castle in Trento
A lunch spot in Trento
A Trento coffee shop owner regales us with tales of Italians and coffee, the characteristics of coffees from around the world, and various implements used to produce the coffee through the years. His shop, across the street, has been there since 1903. (Ale interprets through our “Whisper” radios so everyone can hear over the street noise.)
His product!
Trento has an underground archeological site of Roman ruins.
Inside the ruins
Roman underground ducting
The MAPS.ME app was a big assist when out on my own. This time guiding Barry and me to the Trento MUSE Science Museum, which provided geological displays on the development of the Dolomites, along with lots of other interesting things to see..
After Trento, we did some hiking in Val di Funes
View from Val di Funes
Introduction to speck, the cured ham of the South Tyrol, outside the Santa Maddalena church in Val di Funes
With Linda (on loan from Barry, who is taking the photo) and the other view from Val di Funes: the Dolomites!
The piazza in Brixen (German name)/Bressanone (Italian name). This area of the South Tyrol was part of Austria until 1919 and about 70% of the residents speak German as their first language.
Brixen was featuring nighttime light displays while we were there
Piazza in Bolzano
While in Bolzano, we also visited the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology to view Otzi the Iceman. Otzi is a glacier mummy, discovered in 1991by hikers in the alps just on the Italian side of the border with Switzerland. (No photos are allowed in the museum.)
Goat with rear view mirror – art at the Renon-Klobenstein train station in the hills above Bolzano.
View of the Dolomites from Renon-Klobenstein
Train in Bolzano I’d love to ride (actually pilot!)
Hotel antiques in Brixen-1
Hotel antiques in Brixen-2
Woodworking shop/store we visited during a day trip to the Ladin-speaking area of Val Gardena.
Waiting for another bus to pass on an alpine curve of Val Gardena
Stopping for photos in Val Gardena
Saturday Cars & Coffee at the top of a pass in Val Gardena!
Sellaronda – a 40 kilometer ski circuit in the Dolomites
Hiking scene in Badia
Tyrolean Haflinger horses in Badia
Badia hiking trail notice
Lunch in Badia
After lunch at Badia
Our last day before Venice, we visit an apple grower
Apples here are grown almost as grapes with the plants limited to about 8-feet tall so they can be hand picked. The hand picking prevents bruising since almost all apples in Italy are sold whole, not used for apple sauce or apple juice.
Our host, Lorenzo, slices apples for our tasting
We’re now in our last section of north Italy
We ended the day at Villa Condulmer, with a farewell dinner for those not going on to Venice.
Arriving in Venice via water taxi
Not all the bridges are high
Parking is a problem in Venice! After negotiations with a workboat, we were able to get to the hotel … from the opposite side of the canal.
View from a bridge adjacent to the hotel
One of the alleys that led from the main street back to the hotel
The circled “X” is the location of our hotel in venice
Strada Nuova, the main street of Venice is actually a filled-in canal
A mask store for the Venice Carnival
Gelato! many gelato stores were sampled on the trip, this one near our vaporetto stop at Ca’ d’Oro.
When off the Strada Nuova, the streets tend to be narrow. No cars, trucks. bicycles, skateboards are allowed in Venice (with a few exceptions for handling work materials).
Birth announcement
Remembrance markers for Jews who were deported by the Nazis
Monument to the deported Jews
The inset back wall here lists the names of all the Jews deported
Women’s higher education started here
St Mark’s square
Inside St Mark’s Cathedral
Copper horses that used to be in front of St Mark’s
Replicas are now in place of the original horses
Above it all at:
Inside the Doge’s palace
Typical of holes in the pavement to let the sea water in and out
The island of Borano – colored houses so the fishermen could more easily find their home in foggy conditions. The women are famous for the lace they made while the men were at sea.
The island of Murano – famous for glass, and here is one of the artisans at work.
Gondola ride with Bill, Denise and Jennifer (our Venice tour guide)
Low bridges (and canal traffic!) also affect the gondolas
We also visited the shop of a gondola oarlock maker. The oarlocks are designed so the oar can be placed in different positions depending on whether the gondola is to go forward, backward, left, right or stop – definitely all needed to maneuver in the canal traffic.
St. Mark’s square in the evening
Seafood market, adjacent to a more general open-air market
At Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore – where Venetian brides go to be photographed
Perhaps my favorite place in Venice – the Peggy Guggenheim Collection – including this work by Paul Klee (one of my favorite artists because of the often-whimsical nature of his works).
Leaving from the Venice airport at 5:30 am – the end of a delightful trip
Lost on the trip – a pair of Carrera sunglasses (I had a backup pair with an older prescription) and an iPad charging cable.
Ron's Travels 