Hiking in Switzerland – Gabrielle and Urs

November 18, 2017

Wandering through the Villages of the Capriasca Region of Ticino

Saturday November 18, 2017 -- Sometimes a hike consists of a leisurely 10 km walk in an area of closely-spaced villages with poetic Italian names, admiring the local architecture, peeking into every community church to discover the artistic treasures there, and enjoying a meal of Piccata al Marsala and Risotto Milanese in the local Trattoria where you get personal service because you are the only visitors off-season on a work day....

And most often we find something interesting along the way, which in this case consisted of artwork in two churches in particular. The beautiful Church of Santo Stefano in Tesserete, which is over 1000 years old, contains ancient and peeling frescoes, one of which depicts a baby Jesus with six fingers on one hand. Why would the artist paint this? Unfortunately, the information brochure doesn't hint at why this would be.

More interesting even is the copy of the "Last Supper" painting which I saw in the Church of Sant'Ambrogio in Ponte Capriasca. When I looked at it, I thought it was just a modern copy, but reading about it later, it seems that this "Copy" of Leonardo da Vinci's famous work was painted barely 50 years later than the original (1494 in Milan) by an anonymous painter, who may or may not have been a student of Leonardo's, having made improvements on the original, possibly because Leonardo might have had to give up early on the original due to quickly deteriorating surface conditions**....How did he know exactly how to paint it, in a church 70 km North of the original? From memory? A pencil sketch? What an interesting little discovery!

**Side Note: Apparently very little remains of the original painting in Milan, despite numerous restoration attempts. And apparently the replica I saw was one of only 2 or 3 such early replicas in existence.

Chiesa di Santo Stefano in Tesserete, Ticino. The origins of this church are from over 1000 years.

A long time ago the people were a whole lot smaller....

Sculptures, marble inlays and frescoes adorn the inside of this beautiful church.

On this primitive painting, there are six fingers on the hand of Baby Jesus.

Each community we walked through had a piazza something like this one.

Our 10-km walk from Tesserete to Lamone through the villages of Capriasca, near Lugano, Switzerland

On our way from Campestro to Cagiallo to Luggagia

It wasn't all city walking. In the background, the distinctive "Denti della Vecchia" ("Old Lady's Teeth")

A beautiful day for a walk in the mild southern temperatures while the North lays under a chill...

The lovely landscape of the Capriasca

A couple of years ago we walked along the pinnacles of the "Denti della Vecchia"

An interesting discovery: Three of the villages we walked through had these massive community washing basins

This fountain / washing basin we found in Vaglio. These were surely all cut and carved by hand.

Not all the churches are old. This intricately designed building in Vaglio dates only to 1916.

Looking East into the Val Colla

This area is warm enough to grow persimmons (and also kiwis, lots of kiwis)

In the village of Ponte Capriasca we were looking for a restaurant across from this really rather unassuming-looking church, and I just quickly popped in for a look. Near the entrance was a rendition of "The Last Supper" by Leonardo Da Vinci, so I took a quick photo to compare later on to a photo of the original I looked up on the Internet.

The similarity is amazing, only the colours of the clothes are slightly different, and besides the painting being generally in much better condition, I was surprised to learn upon later reading that the copy was possibly done by a student of Leonardo, who finished the background much more elaborately than Leonardo did. It is theorized that Leonardo might have given up on finishing the painting as originally planned, because the surface was at that time already starting to deteriorate (too damp). It also seems like this is only one of two or three such early replicas in existence.

This is my photo of the ca.1550 replica of DaVinci's "Last Supper", inside the Church Sant'Ambrogio in Ponte Capriasca, Ticino

This is a photo of the original "Last Supper" (Wikipedia). The painting has greatly deteriorated.

We had lunch at a quaint little trattoria, we were the only guests and were treated well!

Piccata al Marsala and Risotto Milanese in the Trattoria del Giardino in Ponte Capriasca

This is a Mediterranean Pine, or Umbrella Pine, from which we get those expensive Pine Nuts.

This is my second time in Origlio, it has a very pretty old core

In Origlio

Walking around Lake Origlio in the late afternoon sun (that would be 14:30!)

Lago d'Origlio

The last village we walked through, Lamone, before catching the train to Lugano and then back North to the Cold!

Our 10-km walk from Tesserete to Lamone through the villages of Capriasca, near Lugano, Switzerland

November 1, 2017

From Langnau to Eggiwil in the Emmental

November 1, 2017 -- Not all of our hikes are ideal, and this one wasn't one of my favourites. The weather was good and we had nice views, but I wasn't prepared for about half of the tour to be on paved roads. I can walk a long time on meadow and forest trails, and especially on high alpine trails, but asphalt tires me out within minutes.

It was a cold morning, so our long uphill climb on the shady side of the mountain was actually quite enjoyable. Here the trails were good and interesting and the cows are thrilled to be out in this weather, so we were accompanied by the cowbells, which is always a treat. But there was more forest than views, which I hadn't been expecting. Still, I was able to get some nice photos. We were accompanied by views of the typical rolling hills of the Emmental along the way, and where we stopped for lunch (Blapbach) we saw a few of the snowy peaks of the Bernese Alps. The restaurant is known for its meringue desserts, but it was so busy that our order took a long time coming, so no time for dessert. Instead we bought some meringues when we got back down to the valley, and made our own dessert at home (also WAY cheaper that way!)

The most interesting feature on this tour was that we unexpectedly came upon one of the very oldest tunnels in Switzerland. We all know the Swiss have been building tunnels galore, but this one called the "Hegenloch" was blasted by locals in the mid 1800's using only Bernese black powder as an explosive. The "rock" is what they call "puddingstone", probably easier to blast than other rock, but still it made me think of the difference between cutting down a tree with an axe or a chainsaw....

Another 13 km hike in the Emmental, 4 hours, from Langnau to Eggiwil, about 600 altitude meters both up and down.

Cows are happy to be outside in the crisp weather

This farmer just sent his mamas and babies out to the pasture to enjoy the lovely morning as well

The farmer just sent his mamas and babies out to the pasture to enjoy the lovely morning as well

The Emmental is a pastoral landscape of low rolling hills

Carved from the Siamese Twin Tree

Here in the Emmental they prefer Simmental cows to the Swiss Brown

The Hegenloch tunnel is one of the oldest tunnels in Switzerland

We walked through a lot of sun-dappled forests. These sections of trail are preferable to the paved roads

As we got close to the restaurant (after 3 hours of walking) we finally got the view I was expecting the whole way

The peaks of Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn and Finsteraarhorn from the Bernese Alps are just visible on the horizon

I could say this one picture made the 4-hour hike worthwhile

Restaurant Blapbach, where we had a very good lunch on the terrace, is a popular restaurant and we had to wait a long time for our food. Any mountain restaurant accessible by car will be bound to be popular on such a beautiful fall day.

On the last hour steep downhill to Eggiwil, the view South was unfortunately quite hazy

In any case, the Emmental farms and houses are always a highlight

On our descent to Eggiwil we passed many interesting Emmental buildings.

Crossing the Emme River before reaching Eggiwil

Hotel feature in Eggiwil

Hoping to "score" some meringues before the bus came. Bakery was open, but there was no one there to serve us. The owner must have gone upstairs for a quick nap.