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Walking in Ticino

Lugano, Locarno and the mountains of southern Switzerland

By Andrew Beattie

ISBN

9781786310606

Availability

Published

16 Jan 2023

Edition

First

Pages

264

Size

17.20 x 11.60 x 1.25cm

Weight

290g

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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

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.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Overview map

Map key

Introduction

History

Ticino today

Geology and landscape

Plants and flowers

Wildlife

Getting there

Local transport and driving

Information and maps

Weather and when to visit

Accommodation

Food and drink

What to take

Walking practicalities

Safety in the mountains

Using this guide

General information

Walks from Lugano

Walk 1 Lake Lugano shoreline from Paradiso to Gandria

Walk 2 Campione d’Italia to Cantine di Gandria

Walk 3 San Salvatore to Morcote

Walk 4 Monte Caslano

Walk 5 Monte San Giorgio

Walk 6 Monte Tamaro to Monte Lema

Walk 7 Monte Boglia and the Denti della Vecchia

Walk 8 Monte Bar and the Capriasca Valley

Walk 9 Cima di Medeglia and the old Military Road

Walks from Locarno

Walk 10 Along the shore of Lake Maggiore

Walk 11 Sentiero Collina Alta and Sentiero Collina Bassa

Walk 12 Cimetta to Mergoscia via Capanna dei Monti di Lego

Walk 13 The Centovalli from Camedo to Intragna

Walk 14 The Valle del Salto

Walk 15 Along the Val Lavizzara from Fusio to Bignasco

Walk 16 Capanna Cristallina from Robiei

Walk 17 Bosco Gurin to Cimalmotto

Walk 18 Sentiero per l’Arte

Walk 19 Revöira and Ca d Dént

Walk 20 Lavertezzo to the Verzasca Dam

Walks from Bellinzona and Biasca

Walk 21 Monte Carasso, Sementina and the Ponte Tibetano

Walk 22 Capanna Genzianella and Motto della Croce

Walk 23 The ‘Iron Route’ from Carena

Walk 24 Mornera and the Capanna Albagno

Walk 25 Camorino and the Hunger Towers

Walk 26 Capanna Brogoldone and the Santa Maria Monastery

Walk 27 Val Blenio Sentiero Storico

Walk 28 Val Blenio Strada Alta

Walk 29 Lukmanier Pass to Olivone via Passo di Gana Negra

Walks from Airolo

Walk 30 Sentiero Alta Val Bedretto

Walk 31 Circuit of lakes at the summit of the St Gotthard Pass

Walk 32 Sentiero Bassa Val Bedretto

Walk 33 Along the Val Torta to Capanna Cristallina

Walk 34 Nufenenpass and the Upper Val Bedretto

Walk 35 Strada Alta Valle Leventina (north side)

Walk 36 Sentiero Alta Valle Leventina (south side)

Walk 37 Circuit of Lago Ritom

Walk 38 Lago Tremorgio and Capanna Leit

Appendix A Route summary table

Appendix B Useful contacts

Appendix C Glossary of Italian words

Maps

Information and maps

Switzerland more or less invented modern tourism (in the way we would understand it today) and not surprisingly it has a very comprehensive tourist infrastructure. There are tourist offices in most large towns (often located in the railway station) where the staff will speak English and will be knowledgeable about local walks – though be warned that most tourist offices close for an hour or two for lunch and are shut on Sunday. The website of the canton’s tourism agency is also crammed full of information and recommendations (www.ticino.ch).

Tourist offices (along with bookshops, hotel receptions and the kiosks attached to railway stations) are also the best places to buy maps. As you might expect, the country is comprehensively and accurately mapped, and a fold-out printed map is vital for any walk (don’t rely on maps viewable by mobile phone, which are less versatile when viewed on a small screen, and also depend on your phone maintaining its battery charge for the whole length of the walk). The series of 1:25,000 fold-out maps with brown covers are unbeatable for their detail, though less detailed maps (with green covers) are also available at 1:50,000 scale. Both are great for hiking and both are published by the Bundesamt für Landestopografie (Swiss Federal Office of Topography or ‘Swisstopo’). Eighteen individual maps in the 1:25,000 series and eight individual maps in the 1:50,000 series cover Ticino – check carefully the area covered by each map before you buy one. In addition, there are other standalone hiking maps for individual regions within Ticino, published by independent publishers (though using Swisstopo cartographic data).

Unfortunately, all these maps are rather expensive to purchase; there seems to be no way around this, though always ask at tourist offices if they have free maps – sometimes these are too basic for hiking purposes, though on occasions the free maps offered by tourist offices can be as detailed as a purchased map, so it’s always worth asking. The best online map of Switzerland is available at www.map.geo.admin.ch/ – you can zoom in and out with ease, and the level of on-screen detail is astonishing.

Red and white track markers show walkers the way – these are on the trail through the Val di Campo on Walk 29

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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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