TOUR SUMMARY

 SPLENDORS OF EUROPE offers this one week luxury escorted tour to Switzerland featuring Luzern and Lugano.  This is a small group  tour of Switzerland that includes walking tours and excursions which highlight Switzerland’s lakes, mountains, history, architecture, art, castles, churches, medieval towns and museums.   This tour has a regional focus and provides in-depth cultural  and grand gourmet culinary experiences.  Two professional escorts ensure that everyone in our small group of 12 or less has a rewarding personal experience.  Travel in Switzerland is by first class panoramic train, cogwheel mountain train and luxury lake steamer.  The famous Wilhelm Tell Express luxury lake steamer and panoramic train service is enjoyed between Luzern and Lugano on this tour.  This tour includes visits to all the best sights near Luzern and Lugano.  Travel to the exquisite Alps and Lake Luzern and Lake Lugano regions of Switzerland with SPLENDORS OF EUROPE and you’ll enjoy scenery like a beautiful oil painting daily.  You'll have the best vacation trip ever.  Visit the hotel, restaurant, and tour photo galleries at the end of this page.

Nearby we see the Altes Rathaus or old town hall built in 1599 and still in use today.

Next we visit the beautiful 17^th century Am Rhyn House with its fine Picasso collection. We visit the Kornmarket a medieval square once home to the grain market. We walk through the Weinmarket with its splendid fountain squares and frescoed buildings. We walk across the Spreuerbrucke, another romantic covered wooden bridge from 1408 decorated with many medieval paintings.

Next we visit the Franciscan Church with its rich wooden carvings and the vast Jesuit Church with its perfectly restored rococo interior.

We continue our walk along the river Reuss to the Culture and Congress Center at the edge of the Lake. It’s a modern glass and steel architectural masterpiece.

We enjoy a wonderful two hour lunch cruise on Lake Luzern aboard a classic steamer.  From our ship, we enjoy the spectacular mountains with scenery like an oil painting that came to life.

This afternoon we visit more of Luzern starting with a visit to the Hofkirche, a monastery from 750 rebuilt in the Renaissance style after a fire in 1633. Inside we’ll see one of Switzerland’s finest pipe organs.  Our next stop is the Bourbaki-Panorama. This is a large wraparound panoramic painting from the 19^th century. It depicts grand scenes from the Franco-Prussian War.  Next we see the Lion Monument, a tribute to 760 Swiss soldiers who died defending Louis XVI in Paris during the French revolution.

We stop and rest in the peaceful Glacier Garden carved and polished during the Ice Age.

Our last stop today is the Zytturm a clock tower from 1400 and one of the remaining nine remaining towers that formed the old town wall.

There’s time to relax, go shopping, or explore more of Luzern.

Tonight we delight in an elegant gourmet dinner celebrating our visit to Luzern. B+L+D

After our Alpine expedition, we’ll enjoy a café style lunch in town.

This afternoon choose between exploring more of Luzern on you own, a shopping tour with your escorts, or a visit to the Swiss Transport Museum.

After a morning of leisure, we board our lake steamer for the lovely cruise across Lake Luzern.

On board, we enjoy a three course lunch in a beautiful dining salon while gazing in amazement at the mountains that tumble down into the lake. This dramatic scenery has inspired many an artist and Poet.

We disembark in Fluelen, home of the Wilhelm Tell legend. Here we board the first class panorama cars of the Wilhelm Tell Express Train.

From our comfortable seats we enjoy the view as we enter the awesome Reuss Valley with its deep ravines and precipitous cliffs. We pass over numerous spiral and horseshoe tunnels, galleries and bridges as the train climbs to 1100 meters before entering the famous Gotthard Tunnel. After the Gotthard we enter the Leventia Valley where we cross more breathtaking bridges and passes before we arrive at the lake side resort town of Lugano.

Only a few miles from Italy this Swiss town enjoys the efficiency of Switzerland and the tasteful style of Italian aristocracy.

Today we take a pleasant walking tour of Lugano. We start with the Piazza della Riforma, the café tabled social center of Lugano.

We then visit the Cathedral di San Lorenzo with its Renaissance façade and rich baroque and frescoed interior. Next we visit Tassino Park with splendid views overlooking the lake and a lovely rose garden.

We also visit the 15th century Church of St Mary of the Angels with its extraordinary 1529 frescoes by Bernardino Luini. Nearby we enjoy the lovely lake side Belvedere Gardens, with its sculptures and wonderful palms and beautifully flowering plants.  We take the romantic Waterfront Promenade under the lime and palm trees taking in the wonderful views.

We relax and savor lunch with a view at the terrace of the Panoramico.

This afternoon we visit the beautiful Villa Ciani and its Fine Arts Museum.   Civico Park is enjoyed with its exotic plants and 1000 varieties of roses and aviary. It’s a lovely place to sit and enjoy the ambiance.

Tonight we enjoy dinner at one of the many restaurants that offer terrace dining with views of the lake. B+L+D

Today we visit the splendid 16^th century Villa Favorita. Here we see the exceptional art collection of Baron von Thyssen-Bornemisza.

We stroll through the villa gardens and then we visit the adjacent Olive Park. It’s an idyllic landscape of silvery olive trees, cypress, laurel and rosemary on the lower slopes of Monte Bre’.

Next we take the funicular to the summit of Monte Bre’ for wonderful views of Lugano, the lake and the mountains beyond. Here we visit to the mountain top village of Bré.

This afternoon we make our way back to Lugano where you are at your leisure to enjoy this privileged town.