Things to do
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LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura
Opened in 2015 on the lakefront, this cultural centre holds MASI, the art museum of Italian-speaking Switzerland, alongside a concert hall and a theatre. It stands on the site of the old Grand Hotel Palace, whose front was kept. The glass foyer and the square outside face straight onto the lake.
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Monte Generoso
A rack railway from Capolago on Lake Lugano takes about forty minutes to the top station, where Mario Botta's flower-shaped restaurant, Fiore di Pietra, opened in 2017. A short path climbs to the summit at roughly 1,700 metres. Clear days show four lakes, the Alps to the Matterhorn and Milan across the plain.
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Monte San Salvatore
A wooded cone at 912 metres above Paradiso, reached by funicular in about 12 minutes, with a chapel on top and a terrace over the lake's arms and the Monte Rosa chain. The funicular runs daily from mid March to early November and stays open late on summer evenings; winter service is limited. The path down through Carona to Morcote takes about three hours.
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Cathedral
Cattedrale di San Lorenzo
Lugano's cathedral stands on a terrace halfway between the railway station and the old town, with a white marble Renaissance front. Walk down from the station and it is the first stop, and the terrace looks over the roofs to the lake and San Salvatore. Inside, the frescoed side chapels are worth ten minutes, and entry is free.
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Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angioli
This small Franciscan church on the lakefront holds a Passion and Crucifixion by Bernardino Luini, painted in 1529 across the whole wall that divides the nave. His Last Supper hangs in the nave too. It stands on Piazza Luini at the south end of the old centre, steps from the promenade.
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Gandria
A car-free fishing village on the lake below Monte Bre, its houses stacked straight up from the water and joined by stairs instead of streets. Walk in on the Olive Trail, about 3.5 kilometres of mostly level shore path from Castagnola that takes an hour. Then take the boat back to Lugano.
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Beach
Lido di Lugano
The town's main swimming spot, at the mouth of the Cassarate, with a lake beach, swimming pools and lawns shaded by trees. It opens for the summer season only and is ticketed. Arrive in the morning on hot weekends, when the lawns fill by early afternoon.
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Monte Bre
Monte Brè rises to 925 metres on the east side of the bay, with the town and San Salvatore laid out below. A funicular climbs from Cassarate all year, changing cars at Suvigliana, and the stone village of Brè just under the top has an open-air art trail in its lanes. From the summit a path drops to Gandria in about an hour and a half.
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Viewpoint
Monte Tamaro
Take the train to Rivera, then a gondola to Alpe Foppa at about 1,530 metres, where Mario Botta's stone chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli juts out over the valley. The gondola runs from spring to autumn, and summer adds a toboggan run. Fit walkers can follow the ridge to Monte Lema in about four to five hours and ride the cable car down to Miglieglia.
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Village
Morcote
A lakeside village at the tip of the San Salvatore peninsula, with arcaded houses along the water and lanes climbing behind them. About 400 stone steps lead up to the church of Santa Maria del Sasso, which has Renaissance frescoes inside and the best view of the lake from its terrace. The boat from Lugano takes under an hour; the path from San Salvatore summit through Carona takes about three.
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Museum
MUSEC Museo delle Culture
Lugano's museum of non-European art, in Villa Malpensata on the lakefront a short walk south of LAC. The collection is strongest on Asia and Oceania, with masks, carvings and photographs, and the temporary shows change through the year. The garden terrace has a café facing the lake.
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Museum
Museum Hermann Hesse
The writer lived in Montagnola, on the hill above Lugano, for the last 43 years of his life, and this small museum in the Torre Camuzzi holds his typewriter, glasses and watercolours. It is a short bus ride from Lugano station. From the door, a signposted walk leads past his houses to his grave at Sant'Abbondio in Gentilino.
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Parco Ciani
The town's lakeside park, six hectares of cedar, magnolia and camellia around a nineteenth-century villa, running from the centre to the mouth of the Cassarate. Entry is free, and the path along its shore joins the promenade to the Lido.
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Garden
Parco San Grato
A hillside park above Carona, planted with hundreds of azaleas and rhododendrons that flower in May. Paths wind through the beds to viewpoints over the lake and on clear days to Monte Rosa, and entry is free. It sits on the walk from San Salvatore summit to Morcote, so it makes a natural stop on the way down.
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Garden
Parco Scherrer
A terraced garden on the slope above Morcote's waterfront, planted with palms, camellias and cypresses and dotted with small copies of buildings from Greece, Egypt and Asia. It opens from spring to autumn and is ticketed. Pair it with the climb to Santa Maria del Sasso, which starts a few lanes away.
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Landmark
Piazza della Riforma
The old town's main square, open to the lake on one side and closed by the town hall on the other, with café tables across most of it. Via Nassa's arcades run from its corner, parallel to the lake. On Tuesday and Friday mornings the produce market sets up in the streets just behind.
