La Bella Svizzera: Weekend in Lugano

Now I understand what everyone around here means when they say Ticino might as well be Italy. Much of the evidence I found to support this claim I discovered during dinner.

First, it's the food. Sure, the menu at Trani, the restaurant and wine bar we discovered while wandering around the streets of Lugano, featured a "Menu Formaggio" with servings of Raclette and Fondue; even a side of spätzli complemented another dish. Still, these dishes seemed more like the token Swiss items on offer, while everything else on the menu was pure Italian. We devoured the most delectable sweet potato ravioli. We savored the house specialty: La Carciofata, a sampling of different artichoke appetizers. We favored the Italian wine over their other offerings, which brings me to my next point: the wine. The Swiss wines on the menu were significantly more expensive than the Italian ones. And as I mentioned in a previous post, we polished off two bottles during our leisurely dinner, so it's a good thing we went with the more affordable selections. The last very noticeably Italian staple were the men. I don't care if you are Italian-American or Swiss-Italian; if you have Italian blood, you love to love the ladies. The table across from ours seated a boisterous group of seven Italian men. All from Switzerland. Even after I announced to them, in Italian, that we were celebrating our one year wedding anniversary, one of them immediately started to chat me up when Isaiah left the room.

The ragazzo who took this photo of us exclaimed, "Ah, tu sei bellissima, ma tu..." Translation: "Ah, you are beautiful, but you..."

For dessert, Isaiah ordered a sorbetto di limone served with vodka. I ought to start doing that at home!

The interior of this restaurant looks like an old wine cellar, complete with brick walls. I snapped this shot while we and the group of seven were the last to linger.