Simona's Corner of Dreams: Locarno and Ascona 2016

The start of this Swiss one week holiday was the evening of Thursday, July 7. we deliberately decided to drive down Locarno (2 1/2 h journey) in the evening, cause otherwise we would have been stuck in traffic in front of the Gotthard tunnel. It was a wise decision, no traffic jam and we arrived in Locarno Monti 2 1\2 hours later.

We always stay in the same apartment over Locarno, it belobgs to a friend, so that's great. That evening we went straight to bed.

On Friday we got up early, had breakfast and then went directly to the "badi" in Ascona, it's basically a swimming restort/area right by the lake. The first thing we had there was a Latte Macchiato, because without coffee?! Well, I love my coffee 😜💗 Then I got a sunlounger and read in the sunshine for hours. I actually managed to finish Sarah Morgan's Sunset in Central Park. I also wrote the review for it right away, I absolutely adored this book. Well, then it was time for lunch and we went to this lake bar right by the water, I had a delicious Caprese salad with prociutto, so yum! At around 4 we went back to the appartment, to get ready for the concert.

We booked a table right onthe Piazza, had dinner there and enjoyed Marco Mengoni from there before getting into the growd. Then it was finally time for Ellie Goulding!!!
She was fab, her voice is incredible live and I just love her songs. Unfortunately, she wasn't really happy to create an atmosphere with the audience. At one point she even said that we are quiet. It seemed as if she was in a bad mood, never smiled and the goodbye was weird. The music, her voice and the performance in general was fab though. Funnily enough we ran into some friends at the concert and had drinks with them after.

The next day was Saturday, we got up early one more and drove to Varese, Italy. It's not far away from the boarder and since shopping and eating in Italy is always a great idea we went for it. I have to say that Varese is cute and ok for shopping, but I prefer Como. We had a great day and enjoyed some yummy food, but I wouldn't go back any time soon. In the evening we went for dinner by the lake in Minusio with our friends, who own an appartment down there. The location for dinner was fab and the food was deliscious. Afterwards we went for drinks at their apartment, they have a fab place.

Sunday meant sleeping in, finally!!! After a slow start we headed to Ascona to Ascona for a coffee. Of course we also had lunch at our favourite restaurant in Ascona, the Nostrana. I of course had my Gazpacho, again. We strolled through the village and then headed back to the appartment. The other got ready for golf, I drive them there and then headed back to Ascona. I wnjoyed Lillet at the Seven Sea Lounge and just sat there and enjyoed the sunshine. Then I walked around a bit, before sitting down in the shade and writing some blog posts. I then drove back to the golf course to have dinner. After dinner we watched the Euro 2016 final at our friend's apartment. That was a lot of fun, in the break we jumped into the pool and had a blast, we were probably a bit too loud for the neighbours 😜.

On Monday we had a slow start, enjoyed the sun on the balcony and had lunch there as well. Only at around 3 pm we went to Locarno for some shopping. That's also when it started raining
Like crazy, we were glad to be in the shops, we still had to buy some umbrellas though. I fohnd some great short for Chess and some other things. In the evening we had dinner at. Our favourite restaurant in Locarno, il Sensi. The rest of the evening was chilled and relaxed with beer and reading.

Tuesday was probably the worst day weather wise, rain all day. We went into Ascona and had lunch at the Nostrana again. Then we walked through the village and went into some shops. I found some great Ray Ban sunglasses in a second hand shop. Since the weather didn't get better, we decided to buy some food and cook at home. That was delicious. I spent the whole evening reading amd finished another book.

The next day we enjoyed the sunshine by the pool. We also cooked lunch at the apartment and then went back to the pool. Unfortunately the sunshine didn't last long, it suddenly to be really windy and cold. The palm trees were shaking. We decided to get ready early and go into the city of Locarno. There we met our friends for dinner at the Sensi. It suddenly got really cold, we actually wanted to stay in the alleys and listen to Pharrell Williams, but it was just too cold.