4 Best Sights in Ticino, Switzerland

Breathtaking alpine scenery and subtropical colors are wed in Brissago, yet another flowery lakefront resort at the lowest elevation in Switzerland. It's an easy excursion by car or bus from Ascona. The main attraction, the federally protected Brissago Islands, are set like jewels in the lake. Their botanical gardens teem with more than a thousand species of subtropical plants, identified by plaques in Italian, German, and French. An English guide to the plants is for sale for SF8 at the gate. Have lunch or drinks at the restaurant in a beautifully restored 1929 villa. Boats bound for the islands depart regularly from Ascona (SF20 round-trip) and Locarno (SF34 round-trip). You must leave with the last boat back to the mainland—usually around 6 pm—so check the schedule carefully when planning your excursion.

A hillside park behind the waterfront, Monte Verità was the site of a utopian, vegetarian artists' colony in the early 1900s. Influenced by Eastern and Western religions as well as new realms of psychology, its ideals attracted thousands of sojourners, including dancer Isadora Duncan, novelist Hermann Hesse, and psychologist Carl Jung. You can visit some of the Monte Verità buildings, including the unusual flat-roofed Casa Anatta, and the museum, which was renovated in 2017. The main park and grounds are open year-round.

On the waterfront, the pedestrian-only Piazza Motta is crowded with sidewalk cafés, and the water along the promenade swarms with boats.

A charming labyrinth of lanes behind Piazza Motta leads uphill past art galleries (not all showing very good works) to Via Borgo, lined with contemporary shops and galleries.