DAY TWO A SCONA & LOCARNO

MORNING

Just 30 minutes from the Italian border, Switzerland’s lowestlying town, Ascona, has a laid-back feel. Take a stroll along the picturesque waterfront, lined with pastel-coloured buildings, and enjoy an espresso overlooking the glittering blues of Lake Maggiore. Get closer to the water on a standup paddleboard or on a sailing lesson with Asconautica or take a boat trip to Ticino’s treasured botanical garden on the twin Brissago Islands, thick with subtropical trees and blooms.

AFTERNOON

Grotto restaurants are a key part of Ticinese food culture, and lunch at Ascona’s Grotto Baldoria means feasting at communal tables on simple but delicious dishes, including charcuterie, polenta, risotto and stews. Work it off with a hike up Monte Verità (‘mountain of truth’), home to a tea plantation, a Japanese-style tea house and Casa Anatta Museum, dedicated to a group of anarchists, vegetarians, nature enthusiasts and free-love advocates who set up a co-operative here in the early 20th century.

EVENING

Back at Ascona’s lakeshore, drink in the sunset with an

Aperol spritz or glass of local wine at the Sea Lounge in the old port. Pair it with a sandwich or salad, or for a splurge head to La Brezza, Hotel Eden Roc’s Michelin-star restaurant. The four- to seven-course tasting menus offer delicious dishes such as Mediterranean red mullet with fennel and couscous, and ravioli with braised roe deer shank and Jerusalem artichoke. If time, plan an evening treatment at the hotel spa — the ideal spot for R&R.

Pastel-coloured buildings lining Ascona’s waterfront promenade