Ticino (Val Maggia, Locarno, Bellinzona)

Pasta.  Scooters.  Castles.

We enjoyed exploring the Italian part of Switzerland, down in the southern region of the country.  It truly felt like we were in Italy (are we sure we didn't accidentally cross the border?)   No Heidi, chocolate box houses or bratwurst here, but rather homemade pasta, gelato, scooters, castles, palm trees and warm weather!  Prego.

Our first destination was Val Maggia, a narrow valley following a river by the same name and full of picturesque villages, switchback roads and one very unique church.  We must've gained a lot of elevation as we reached snow!  It was also eerily quiet in this area, not a lot of people or cars around.

  

There's no one around!

Next, we backtracked to Val Bavona, which has several hamlets comprised of rustic stone and slate-roofed houses which are only inhabited from April through November.  Foroglio was a highlight, and boasts a powerful waterfall as a backdrop.

Now it was time for the "big city" of Locarno.  Well, it has a population of roughly 15,000 but it felt really large after all the teeny tiny villages up in the valley!  This town sits on the northern tip Lake Maggiore and has a definite resort feel to it.  It also boasts the most sunshine out of any Swiss town - 2,300 hours per year.   It was sunny indeed and we enjoyed strolling through the old town, piazzas and path along the lake.

We also took a funicular up to the Santuario della Madonna del Sasso, which is perched on a wooded hillside on the edge of a deep ravine above the city and offers spectacular views from the church's courtyard.  The churches here have really ornate baroque ceilings, so pretty.

 

For dinner we had hearty Italian fare, pizza and the biggest homemade tortellini I've ever seen.  Both were very fresh and delicious!

 
In the morning we headed to another rugged valley, Val Verzasca, and the Vogorno dam in particular.  It's the highest dam in Europe and also the location where James Bond jumped in the1995 movie GoldenEye.  For those adrenaline junkies, bungee jumps are offered!  Good lord, I couldn't look over the side of the dam it's so high, I can't believe there are people who want to jump off willingly!  Eek.

 

NO thank you!

Our last stop was Bellinzona and its three fairy-tale medieval castles.  Most people come for the castles, but the old town is full of picturesque squares, carefully restored merchants' houses and vineyards to boot.

 

Castelgrande, the first and biggest one is located in the center of town.  A nice path connects all the castles, but it was quite a hike uphill to get to the last one.

Castello de Montebello, the middle castle surrounded by grape vines.

Castello de Sasso Corbaro, the last and smallest castle.  Yay, we made it and it's all downhill from here!

Foundation Beyeler - Basel

Getting our culture on!

We finally made it to the Beyeler Museum in the Riehen suburbs of Basel (well, Matt had been before).  Art dealers Ernst Beyeler and his wife Hildy commissioned Renzo Piano (famous for the Pompidou in Paris) to design a museum to house their expansive private collection, which includes several works from their friend Pablo Picasso.  The museum itself is a gorgeous piece of architecture, very light and airy.  Tickets are pretty pricey but we had free entrance thanks to an entertainment book we were given from Roche!  Unbeknownst to us, we went on "family day" so it was a bit crowded.

The exhibition was Odilon Redon, a 19th century symbolist painter who we had never heard of.  His works were beautiful, starting with dark lithographs and ending with colorful pastels.  We also enjoyed the Daros LatinAmerica exhibition (contemporary art) and Beyeler's permanent collection.  Our afternoon ended with tasty hot dogs in the courtyard, French style where the bun is hollowed out, doused in ketchup and perfectly hugs the dog.   Culture and food, that's how we roll!

Spring is coming!

Belgrade

Food.  Fortress.  Bars that could not be found.

I will be honest and admit I kept asking Matt where Belgrade was after he booked it.  Romania, Kosovo?  No, it's Serbia!  We headed to the capital of former Yugoslavia on Friday afternoon. Our hotel picked us up at the airport and a receptionist met us at the entrance of the pedestrianized zone to walk us to the hotel, how nice!  It was perfectly located on the main shopping street, close to the big sights.  We noticed a plethora of popcorn stands and people eating popcorn (it started at $0.50), so a cheap snack!  The city is a bit gritty and sterile-looking in parts and we noticed a lot of graffiti (especially for the local Alcatraz soccer team) but everyone was so very friendly.  The city uses both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet, but some street signs are only in the former, which is totally foreign to us!

 

It was balmy and sunny when we arrived so we went out to explore with no real plan except finding some food.  We headed down to the Sava River and stumbled upon a lovely bike/running/walking path and a bunch of warehouses that have been converted into nice restaurants with plenty of outdoor seating.  They all looked crowded but we tried our luck with TORO, a "Latin GastroBar", and after telling us the only seating was inside, a table cleared and we were able to sit on the patio.  We have some seriously good karma!  It was so warm, we could sit in short sleeves and enjoy the sun.  The food and drink list was extensive, and we were excited to see several sushi items as well.  It was small plates and we didn't want to spoil our appetites for dinner, but we ordered a few things and they were delicious.  The server was very helpful and made suggestions as well (we swapped the tacos for arepas) - apparently he lived in Tahoe last year and was totally fluent in English!  Oh boy, some serious food cravings were fulfilled.  The presentation was pretty too.  Mmmmmmm.

Afterward, we walked along the river and then up to the vast Kalemegdan fortress, sprawling across a hill at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers.  Here, we visited the Ružica (Rose) and St. Peter's Churches.  Inside, there were no pews, but gorgeous paintings and huge gold chandeliers that looked like crowns and hung pretty low.  They were quite different from other churches in Europe.  They were working churches too, with several people burning candles in prayer and long queues to see the priest.  At this vantage point we were treated to sweeping views of the city and watched the gorgeous sunset.

 

 

We then tried to find a local bar we had written down (it sounded really cool), but the address brought us to a residential block, and no bar.  Huh?  (we even tried again the following night with no luck, ha).  We also hit the cobbled Skadarlija street, which is dotted with numerous local eateries, but it was so dead we kept on walking!  So, we ended up at a wine bar to discuss our dinner options.   We decided on Tribeca Cafe, which offered the local Serbian specialties - ćevapčići (grilled minced meat) for Matt and barbecued pork for Kate.  Both were very big portions and tasty!  We did good with food today, that's for sure. 
 

After breakfast on Saturday we walked through Kosančićev venac, a historical neighborhood in downtown Belgrade before meeting our walking tour at the Republic Square.  It was a big group and after getting a history lesson in the square we visited the Bohemian Quarter (Skadarlija),and walked through the oldest part of Belgrade with Ottoman heritage, past the Zoo up to the Kalemegdan fortress, an Orthodox Cathedral and ended back in the pedestrian zone on Knez Mihailova street.  We really should get a pedometer, we walked a lot! 

     

Afterward, we headed to Supermarket, a concept store that includes a restaurant, mini spa center, art gallery,  tattoo saloon, fashion from Serbian designers, and home accessories (note, we never saw or found the tattoo parlor or spa).  It was so cool!  And we had a pretty "American" meal of slightly upscale chicken fingers with wedge fries (for Kate)  and a BLT wrap and coleslaw with wedge fries (for Matt).  No, not Serbian at all but we were having really good food on this trip!

Later, we walked through the Design District, roughly 30 shops of upcoming Serbian designers housed in an old shopping mall.  The stores (studios really) are quite small but offer unique fashion items and accessories, jewelry, home decoration and art objects.  We saw several people busy on their sewing machines.  

 We then continued to the Church of St. Sava, the largest Orthodox Cathedral in the world.  It was mostly covered and under construction on the inside so I don't feel we could fully appreciate its vastness or beauty.  Nice though.

  

 
We also passed through Nikola Pašić square with the National Parliament as well as the Old and New Royal Palaces. Very stately indeed and across from a nice park.  

For dinner we booked dinner at Pire, a cool-looking restaurant we found online that offered a tasting menu paired with wine that cost only $33 per person, what a bargain - we were looking forward to it!  We made reservations and when we arrived, they were expecting us, which is not surprising since there was only one other table dining and another couple in back having drinks!  Yes, pretty quiet, but we enjoyed the exposed brick and sleek white interior.  Unfortunately, Belgrade is a city that still allows smoking inside and 2 of the 4 ladies sitting next to us felt compelled to light up throughout the night (boo, hiss).  The food was quite good, some dishes better than others, but it was all thoughtfully prepared and the wine pairings were very generous!  I felt wasteful not drinking it all, but it was a lot and I tried to cut the server off of her heavy pours but was pretty unsuccessful. 

 

 

Sunday we took the local bus to Tito's mausoleum, known as the "House of Flowers".   His wife lays in rest beside him.  Apparently she died last year (missed that on the news).  On display were also hundreds (thousands?) of the elaborate relay batons presented to Tito by the participants in the "Relays of Youth" used on "Youth Day" and first celebrated May 25, 1957.

 

 
Thus concludes our fun and food-frenzied weekend in Belgrade (which Kate can now happily point out on a map).