Mother's Day at Lugano

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Geo: 46.1445, 8.72654

Sunday was Mothers Day, and I was very spoilt! Breakfast in bed (thanks, Marguerite, for giving the children some of her homemade bread as a treat for my breakfast) with the kids watching, and a beautiful handmade card. The card says something about the personalities of the kids – G did beautiful hearts, Matt did an aeroplane, and Tom drew a cannon shooting love!

We went to Lugano, on the neighbouring lake, which is very pretty, but (for me) no prettier than Lago Maggiore. It does have more of a "surrounded by mountains" feel – the mountains are much steeper, and the lake is much smaller and winds around. But I just don't get the Italian phenomena of the passagato – why walk around the shops when they are closed (on Sundays), and why don't the shopkeepers see all these people and open the shops? A real highlight of the day for the kids, particularly Tom, was the display of cars – amongst the Kias, Opels and Toyotas were Ferraris, Maseratis, Lambourginis and Jags! The kids loved it! We then drove to Paradiso (just because of the name – its actually just a suburb of Lugano) then up the mountain to Carona, a beautiful little town on top of the mountain looking down at the lake. It was similar to Ronco, with tiny narrow streets, and very nice.

We then raced back to Ronco, to have coffee with Eurosia and GianMarc, and Raissa. It was lovely to catch up with them – Eurosia, in particular, has been so good to us every time we have visited Switzerland.

That night, Steven watched “Il Pupa e secchioni” - an Italian version of Beauty and the Geek. When each beauty got the question right (and the compere ensured that even the dumbest received sufficient hints), she climbed onto the table in a short short skirt – with the camera on the most revealing angle – and did a dance for the geek (who just about needed medical attention!) Then the pupil (in her swimsuit) was put on a vibrating belt machine (you know, the ones that wobble the bottom) whilst being asked political questions! Very revealing television – Steven says he watches it to improve his language skills!!!!!

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Comments

[Tracey Lucas]

What a beautiful young lady she has become..