That is Italian for Switzerland.
My plan to take the local tram to a mountaintop and hike down on Monday was cancelled due to weather. It was snowing at the top and was windy, cold and raining at the bottom. Instead I bought a ticket for $36 that took me on an all-day tourist pass:
- Ferry up to the head of Lake Maggiore in Locarno Switzerland
- Narrow gauge train (actually more like a subway with no bathrooms) over a very scenic mountain pass in the Alps ending back in Italy on the back side of Zermatt
- Local train back to Stresa
It was off-season so the trains were empty. The ferry had a bunch of senior Italians celebrating some kind of reunion. They certainly enjoyed their leisurely (and pretty elegant) meal on-board on the way up to Locarno.
It was also May Day which is Labor Day in Europe and taken seriously. All stores, restaurants and even tourist shops were closed. So between the weather and the holiday it was a good call. Dinner alone at the hotel afterwards:
