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| Africa | Florence | Germany | Greece | Interlaken |
| Lugano | Milano | Monaco | Prague | Venice |
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Lugano is located on
the southern tip of Switzerland in the Canton of Ticino, less than an
hour away from Milan, Italy. The
weather is relatively mild and Mediterranean and the town itself is
located on the lakefront of Lago di Lugano, a lake that spans all the
way to the border of Switzerland and Italy.
The town lies between two mountains; Monte San Salvatore and
Monte Bré, making this place an ideal resort town for the rich and
glamorous. Ferrari 550s,
Porche GT2s, and Audi RS4s are seen on a daily basis around town among
other exotic cars. The
downtown area is filled with designer clothes stores including Ballys,
Armani, and Versace just to name a few. This town is a paradise for the ballers and high rollers. The most funny part
of this entire glamour scene in Lugano is that the most expensive cars
and most fashion conscious people can be found on campus at Franklin
College. In the parking lot
you will find a new BMW Z8, 2002 Mercedes SL500, 2000 Mercedes G class
wagon Brabus 5.8, 2000 BMW M5, and the mother of them all, a Brand
spankin’ new Ferrari 550…and the best part of it all is that these
five plush rides are owned by three lucky chumps.
You may also find it interesting that Osama Bin Laden’s niece
and nephew both attend my school along with some other hotshot princes
from the Middle East. So
where do I fit in??? During the warm
months of the year, my friends and I would enjoy a causal swim in the
lake, going pedaling on the pedal boats, hiking, eating gelato (Italian
ice cream) and fondue dinners. The food here is rather tasty, but it doesn’t go well with
my Asian stomach. Walking
and hiking is a part of daily life and I ended up losing over 15lbs. by
the end of fall semester. Attending Franklin affords many opportunities to travel on the weekends and Academic Travel (two week faculty lead trip to some place in the world each semester) is a part of the curriculum, further encouraging the students to travel. Life is rough isn’t it? Check out these pictures below of my new hometown and surrounding areas! |
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I’m at the summit of Monte San Salvatore. Sharif and I took the funicular to the summit one day to check out the view and to hike around to see what all the hype was about. From the top you can see all of Lugano/Sorengo and see all the way into Italy. You can see Monte Bré to my left and the beautiful Lake Lugano directly behind me. Mountains surround the entire lake and quaint, picturesque, Swiss towns outline the shore. (Picture taken by Sharif) | |||
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Picture of Sharif and I at Pink Castle Park next to the train station in Lugano. We met up with Zachariah on the way as he was trying to scale some random wall near my apartment to practice his climbing skills. Monte Bré is visible to my left accompanied by Lake Lugano. (Picture taken by Zachariah) | |||
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Ever seen James Bond’s Golden Eye? Does this dam look familiar? 30 minutes away from Lugano, this dam is where they filmed the famous bungee jump for the 007 movie: Golden Eye. For 200CHF (about 150USD) you can jump this beast of a bungee and experience the thrill that James Bond did. | |||
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Picture of Tania and I during our orientation trip to Valle Verzasca, a glacial valley about 15 minutes up the road from the famous dam. Ice cold, crystal clear water right behind us. Look at how clean the water is. (Picture taken by Dave). | |||
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Picture of Sonogno, a beautiful Swiss town about 10 minutes up the street from Valle Verzasca. We ate lunch there with all the new students followed by a hike to a waterfall where we went swimming. The architecture of this town was amazing with houses made of stone and streets lined with cobblestones. There is a grotto (traditional Swiss family owed restaurant) where I enjoyed the finest lasagna of my life. I definitely went back for seconds when Amanda came to visit from Florence. | |||
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This is where I go to school. Picture of campus taken from the grotto on campus. It’s weird to see palm trees in Switzerland, but this is typical of Lugano. There are less than 300 students at Franklin College and only six classrooms on campus with the average class size of seven students. It doesn’t get more personal than that! | |||
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One day after school I went on a hike through Lugano, up Monte Bré and down the other side. I ended up in the town of Gandria (where this picture was taken) on the other side of the mountain six hours into the hike. The town is situated on the lakefront with narrow pathways not allowing cars into the town. Unique architecture with pathways going over the streets filled with flowers is typical of Gandria. | |||
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Lake Lugano on a warm summer afternoon with Monte Bré to the left. |
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Photography by Kohta Tabuchi ::: yossi33kt@yahoo.com Web design by Wilson Tai ::: wilson@racingmix.com |
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