Hey, everybody.
I'm here in Locarno in southern Switzerland.
And we're going to go on a little bit of a walking tour through Locarno.
Beautiful little city as you can see right behind me at the Lago Maggiore.
We're going to go on a little bit of a walking tour through the city.
I'm still here at the Lakeside Promenade which is really beautiful.
And there are all these trees that provide some really nice shade.
Locarno is a really cute little town.
It's part of the Italian speaking part of Switzerland.
And it's it feels very Southern.
Similar to the northern Italian cities, Locarno has a similar climate.
It's very much influenced by Italy and you can feel that Southern vibe.
Having said that, there are also a few beautiful mountains around.
You can take a teleferia (cable way)n up there.
And you can go hiking.
You may know the Locarno from the International Film Festival.
That takes place every year in August at the Grande Piazza.
You may have come across in some history lessons the Locarno treaties.
The treaties sought to normalize the territorial arrangements that were made in Versailles.
That is after the First World War.
And they were signed here in 1925.
I'm in the harbor area.
There are lots of sails, boats, and Yachts.
Clearly, Locarno is not a poor city.
There are a number of people living here that can entertain having such large boats.
But when you here, you can also rent a boat or go on a cruise on the Lago Maggiore.
Here you can rent some Yachts and some boats.
Starts with the smallest kind for CHF 22/hour.
And can go up to CHF 800 for half a day for the big one.
But for that one, you have to have a license.
Lago Maggiore, as the name says in Italian, is quite a big lake.
It's the second largest lake in Italy and the largest in southern Switzerland.
It reaches all the way from Locarno here in the north down to Italy.
About 65 kilometers or 44 miles.
That's a large lake.
And you have to cross the border into Italy if you want to go all the way around.
Locarno is a really sunny city.
It enjoys over 2,000 hours of Sun every year but only 100 hours of rain.
If you want your vacation to have more sun than rain, this is the right place to come to.
And even if it snows, which already does here, it doesn't stay very long.
A few days maximum.
The weather and the climate here is very mild.
Similar to Lugano, there were some prehistoric settlements here.
They reach back thousands of years.
And there were also Roman settlements that were found here.
We are now in the central part of the Promenade and it looks really nice.
That are lots of little restaurants around here, ice cream parlors, and cafes.
Definitely, something to enjoy.
But similar to Lugano, this is still Switzerland.
And again, it's not the cheapest of countries so be aware.
If you expect some Italian prices here, you're not going to find that.
You're going to find Swiss prices and they tend to be a little bit heftier.
There are some really nice little alleyways.
We also find restaurants, like this one, Osteria.
The prices here for dinner are around CHF 50 per person in those restaurants.
I'm here at the train stations of Locarno.
It's one of the SBB trains.
These are likely the antique cobblestones that used to be the ground of the lake.
And the lake retracted after a while.
And they were able to use those cobblestones for the pavement here.
And on some of the more historic sites.
Like, this old church and the market squares.
I'm here at Collegiate de St. Vittorio which seems to date back to c. 1150.
Quite a beautiful old church.
There are some nice frescoes inside.
Let's have a quick look in there.
It's really beautiful.
It's one of those warm summer evenings here in Switzerland.
When you come to Switzerland, I highly recommend you to check out Locarno.
You can come here directly from Italy.
The closest large International Airport is probably the one in Milan.
But there's also an airport here.
With that, I'll leave you to it, and I hope I see you again in the next video.
If you enjoyed this video, please also check out my other videos in Switzerland.
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And we see each other in the next video.