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Walking in Ticino

Lugano, Locarno and the mountains of southern Switzerland

By Andrew Beattie

Guide to 38 graded day walks in Ticino, Switzerland, covering Lugano, Locarno (Lake Maggiore), Bellinzona and Biasca, and Airolo and the St Gotthard Pass. Routes for all abilities, ranging from 4km to 19km, highlight the best the Ticino countryside has to offer, from villages and lush valleys, to stunning mountains and gushing waterfalls.

Seasons

Late summer/early autumn is the best time to walk in Ticino, with the heat and crowds from high summer gone and the weather often fine and clear.

Centres

Ticino features the five main areas of lakeside resorts Lugano and Locarno; the Cantonal capital Bellinzona, and its neighbour Biasca; and Airolo, at the foot of the St Gotthard Pass.

Difficulty

Routes are graded to cover a wide range of difficulties, from level lakeshore strolls to trails that cross more challenging terrain up to an altitude of 2600m (the snowline). Apart from walking poles and a pair of stout boots, no specialist equipment is required.

Must See

Ticino's most iconic places are the two lakeside resorts of Lugano and Locarno, with their Italianate piazzas and handsome architecture, and the wilder mountain areas to the north, especially around the high passes that link the Canton with the rest of Switzerland - most notably, the St Gotthard.
ISBN
9781786310606
Availability
Published
Published
16 Jan 2023
Edition
First
Pages
264
Size
17.20 x 11.60 x 1.25cm
Weight
290g
Overview
This guidebook describes 38 walking routes in Ticino, the Swiss canton with a Mediterranean twist. Towering snowcapped mountains and lush, narrow valleys overlook stylish lakeside resorts with palm-fringed promenades and handsome Italianate architecture. It's not just the Italian language that sets Ticino apart: the food, sunny weather and stunning landscapes attract millions of visitors to this part of the southern Alps every year.

As for the walks, it's the variety - as much as the fabulous scenery - that provides the draw. In this book you'll find everything from level walks along the shores of Lakes Lugano and Maggiore, to more challenging trails through craggy, forested valleys with gushing waterfalls and ancient stone-built villages, to isolated mountain huts right at the permanent snowline. If you think you already know Switzerland, but haven't walked in Ticino, a stunning experience awaits you - and all of the routes are easily accessible through a network of buses, trains, funiculars, cable cars and chairlifts.
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Andrew Beattie

Andrew Beattie has been writing and travelling ever since he left Oxford University with a degree in Geography. He has a long-standing interest in the Alps and in 2000 he co-wrote a book on Ticino which to this day remains the only general guidebook in English published on the region. He is also the author of a cultural-historical guide to the Alps published by Signal Books. Away from the Alps, his writing has taken him to many other parts of Europe, as well as the Middle East - he has worked on books in the Rough Guides series on Switzerland, Germany and Syria, while other books for Signal include cultural-historical guides to Prague, Cairo, the River Danube and the Scottish Highlands. His website www.andrewbeattie.me.uk includes galleries of photos taken for these books and for Cicerone's Walking in Ticino. 

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