Locarno is an Italian-speaking lakeside town in southern Switzerland on the shores of Lake Maggiore that is at the foot of the Alps. Ascona is also one of the most beautiful towns in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, right next to Locarno. In this article, while talking about our short weekend trip with my husband in Locarno and Ascona, I will also be sharing my recommendation on what to see, visit, stay, and taste.
Romantic Weekend in Locarno and Ascona
When I opened my eyes Stefano wasn’t sleeping next to me. I checked the time, saw that it was 4 in the morning. The hall light was on. I asked what he was doing. He said that since we’ll be away for the weekend, he had to do some work and finish a few errands, so he got up early. (I later learn that he got up early to decorate the house, and then went out and bought a birthday cake.)
We have to leave the house at 8 o’clock and catch the train. I woke up at 7 am to the sound of the alarm. First thing I want to do is go to the kitchen and make coffee. But I go to the bathroom before I can fill the coffeepot as Stefano hurries me to the toilet. When I come out, he greets me with a small cake and an envelope. Well, guess it’s my 30th birthday today!
I don’t know why, but since my childhood, I was looking forward to turning 30. I waited for this day as if I would experience an incredible enlightenment and discover the meaning of life. It’s as if I will have jumped another level in life, I will come out of the cocoon as a butterfly. Of course, none of them happened. And I feel like I’m getting smaller somewhere inside.
When I opened the envelope, there was a card inside. 14 items on the card, and they were all covered with a piece of paper. At that moment, a police siren sounded from the surrounding. “You’ve been caught aging too fast. You broke the speed limit by crossing the age limit of 30. You are under arrest!” Stefano started to shout lol. “If you want to be free, you must successfully complete all 14 missions on the card.”
He organized the whole weekend put every single activity on the card. I spent 2 days just sticking to what was written on the card, not knowing what our next plan was. A police siren suddenly sounds in the middle of the street, everyone including me is looking around, trying to understand where the sound is coming from. It’s Stefano of course where the siren sound comes from haha. ”Fulfill your 5th duty or you will end up in jail,” he says.
Here’s this guy turned 32 2 days ago lol.
My father used to go into my grandmother’s wardrobe, put on her wigs, put on her clothes. And while we were all sitting in the garden, he would suddenly enter the garden, scaring us all. I guess women really choose men as husbands who look like their fathers haha.
Anyway, Stefano is always the same story as my father. We took the card in our hands, we are going through it item by item. We arrived in Ticino, the Italian region of Switzerland. We got off the train in Locarno, the northernmost point of Lake Maggiore.
I can’t tell you how happy I got because it would be nice to get a little bit of Italian air after the cold weather in the German part of Switzerland.
It takes about 2 hours between Locarno and Horgen, the town we live in. Horgen is 15-20 minutes from Zurich by train. For those who will start the journey from Zurich, it will take 2 hours or 2 hours and 15 minutes, depending on the train you take.
Locarno and Ascona
It was 10 o’clock when we arrived in Locarno. We entered Caffè Locarno right next to the Locarno train station to have breakfast.
Cappuccino was really delicious. You can understand that you are one step closer to Italy just from the taste of cappuccino, especially after the coffees around Zurich,!
But the croissant was unfortunately not very good. The reason why it didn’t meet our expectations was when we ordered a croissant, we had hoped that they would bring Italian-style croissant ”cornetto”, but they brought Swiss-style “gipfeli“. Stefano and I are not big gipfeli fans. If you prefer Italian croissants like us, make sure to order “cornetto”. If you say “Croissant“, they bring gipfeli. Another thing is that they put powdered sugar on the cornettos. If you want your croissant completely salty, you should prefer gipfeli.
The first thing that caught my eye after breakfast was Chicoree women’s clothing store. I wanted to go on a shopping spree since it was almost half the price of Zurich. But Stefano had other plans so we left it for the 2nd day.
After walking a bit around Locarno center, we visited Madonna del Sasso. Although it’s only 1.4 km from the center, the Madonna del Sasso temple is located on the hill and is 370 m above sea level, where you can see the whole city. You have to climb stairs to reach the church.
One of the most important things about this church is that it is an important pilgrimage destination, and another is that there are sculptures and paintings of works such as Lamentation of Christ and The Last Supper.
After visiting the church and its small museum, we went out and watched the city of Locarno from above.
It was almost 1 in the afternoon and we were pretty hungry after walking nonstop for several hours. I took another piece of paper from the card and we went to L’Archetto to eat the Roman-style pizza “Pinsa Romana“, which I will call it world’s most delicious pizza from now on. I bet you can’t have a tastier pizza than this!
These pizzas are made in Roman style. It’s a tiny place. He has 2 tables in his garden. It seems that his main business is take away. The pinsa is very delicious and has a different taste. I liked it so much that I immediately got the recipe! I’m linking it below in case you want to try it at home!
We decided to leave Locarno and walk slowly to Ascona. The distance between Locarno and Ascona is only 2 km, so you can easily reach it on foot. We started walking slowly and getting lost among the most beautiful colors of autumn.
Read More: Locarno Travel Guide
Ascona feels more like a seaside town than Locarno. You realize that you are still in Switzerland, but at the same time it resembles the small lakeside towns of Italy. There weren’t many people on the streets, probably because of the pandemic. It was almost empty everywhere. This situation didn’t bother us much, as it was suitable for our romantic weekend concept haha. We should come back on summer to enjoy the city to the fullest.
We sat on the benches for a while and watched the ducks. We went to the ice cream shop on the corner and got an ice cream cone. Ice cream shop is a place called L’ Angolo dei Golosi, right by the lake in the center. I’m sorry to say but the ice cream was bad 🙁
I need to say that I compare it with the ice creams in Italy. Not too bad by Swiss standards haha. But it’s just not acceptable for an ice cream to be this bad just a few kilometers from Italy!
Just a bit further away, there is an ice cream shop called Gelateria Pippo. I found it later when I was looking at Google reviews. There was long queues in front of it. You might try this one. Let me know if you do so!
After walking by the lake, we toured the city. After all, both Locarno and Ascona are so small that you can go anywhere in one day. Then we headed to the hotel where we were going to stay for the night. Since I was pretty tired, I insisted Stefano take the public transport. However, I naively believed him because he said, “We’ll reach there in a maximum of 10 minutes on foot.” Guess what happened? We had to walk for at least an hour and a half through the forest, soaked in the rain and bogged down in the mud. I say ‘we ”had to” because once we started climbing those steep roads of that forest, we had to move forward because we couldn’t risk slipping and falling while trying to get back in that mud!
Being stuck in the forest with Stefano on this trip, just like in every other trip? Done!
Imagine how much I swore at him on the way lol.
But in the end we came to such a beautiful hotel that all my tiredness was gone!
The name of the hotel is Panorama Hotel Elisabetta. I definitely recommend you to stay here. The hotel has such an amazing view. At first, we couldn’t really understand the scenery because it was foggy. It looked like this;
However, after a while, the landscape evolved into this;
All we had to do was to enjoy the view from the balcony of our room. :p
We had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, Ristorante Al Braciere. Since it was the chestnut season, there were chestnuts in all dishes. And since it was hunting season, venison was on the main menu. They have a very good chef. Although chestnuts were included in every meal, we loved all the dishes without getting bored and without getting the same taste. Even if you’re not staying at this hotel, we recommend that you dine at its restaurant.
Chestnut starter 
Pumpkin Soup 
Venison with chestnuts and vegetables 
Pasta with chestnut sauce 
Chestnut dessert
The next day, we got up early in the morning and had breakfast at the hotel, as our train back home was in the afternoon. By the way, during your stay at the hotel, the hotel gives you a free public transport ticket. With this ticket, we took a bus in front of the hotel and returned to the city center of Ascona.
Read More: Ascona Travel Guide
Stefano offered to walk back, but it was incredibly rainy! That’s why, without wandering around too much, I visited Chicoree to complete the work I left unfinished yesterday and did some shopping!
Even though we had breakfast 2 hours ago, we went to the Roman pizzeria again and I had a another pinsa. Stefano couldn’t eat, but I always have a bit space in my stomach for a good pizza! I ordered the same as yesterday.
We walked around in Locarno a bit more. Then we got on the train and headed home.
Thus, we have come to the end of our short trip and birthday celebration.
I hope you will soon be on your way to these beautiful towns of Switzerland. What do you think about these two small cities? Let’s meet in the comments!
