A New Travel Section with My Favorite Hike in Switzerland!

Upcoming: More places we actually go as locals in northern Italy!

Ciao friends!

A lot of you have been asking for info on where we hike and eat as local residents in and around Lake Como, Italy. In last week’s post, I included some details on our spontaneous weekend to San Bernardino in Italian-speaking Switzerland. It’s a place we deeply love and I wanted to share it with you in this free article.

However, many of the places we go are either less well organized, environmentally fragile, or at risk of overtourism. As you’re probably aware, Italy and Europe are experiencing an overtourism crisis. Consequently, in the spirit of sharing, but also protecting these places and encouraging slow travel, I will put my curated itineraries and travel recommendations behind a paywall to mitigate the risk of them being picked up by uncaring influencers who want to profit off these beautiful places that we call home. ❤️ If you are interested, please consider upgrading to paid.

Announcing a New Travel Section: my very favorite hiking destination in Switzerland

one of the most beautiful lakes in Switzerland ❤️

This week we celebrated Ferragosto, one of the biggest public holidays in Italy. Everyone has the day off and also often take 1-2 weeks of vacation before or after, or maybe even the whole month of August. Many Italian companies fully close shop during this period.

Below are the signs on the closed shop doors in my residential neighborhood. (In Italy, date is written before month.) In sum: my neighborhood is completely closed until September! It’s time to rest and do some serious dolce fare niente, the sweetness of doing nothing. We love to do a mountain hike in the mornings, and then naps and nothing in the afternoons. A short drive takes us to the small preAlpi aka pre-Alps mountains surrounding Lake Como, or to the Italian or Swiss Alps for a bigger hike.

My neighborhood is pretty much closed for the entire month of August!

To me, this lake in Switzerland, just a little over an hour from Como, Italy, is one of the most stunning lakes in the world and one of our favorite hikes.

This is an annual hike for my boyfriend, Giorgio, and I. My son loves it too. It’s great for kids and dogs.

The hike can be as easy as you want - just circling the flat trail around the sapphire blue lake and eating at the Swiss mountain hut - or it can be more difficult - hiking 40 minutes up the well-worn switchback trail to the upper valley where the Alpine cows graze, and having a picnic by the gurgling mountain stream. See video below.

If you crave more of a challenge, continue hiking a little higher to a second glacial lake and mountain hut. You can spend the night at either of the huts or bring a tent and camp by the lake. We often just pack a picnic lunch and make it a day trip! (Italian beach salads do double duty for fab mountain picnics.)

I closed my eyes in the high valley and just listened for a while to the combination of clanging cow bells and rushing water. Giorgio awesomely said, ‘It’s just like Arizona. Or the mountains of California.’ I love this man SO MUCH, but he has no idea what he’s talking about in terms of American scenery. ❤️

However, it is exactly as one imagines Switzerland. Everything about it. The stone mountain peaks and green valleys, the Alpine cows with big bells, the transparently clear mountain streams, and the cool breeze streaming down from the passes. We were only missing Heidi and a bar of Milka chocolate.

For subscriber-only exclusive itineraries with maps, photos and local tips on:

• how to get there

• where to eat

• 3 levels of hiking: easy, medium, and more difficult

• how to make it a day trip, or

• where to spend the night (mountain hut options or camping)

  …upgrade to paid subscription for this and upcoming travel posts to the places local Italians go. See you there!