American Women
of Ticino
About Ticino
To
find out what Ticino has to offer, it is helpful to check with the
local tourist offices. They have guides to walks, restaurants, daily
and overnight excursions, and all local festivals. Local newspapers
also have culture guides and daily listings of events, seminars,
lectures, and sports. For more information and resources, please see our Links page.
Ticino, the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland, is tiny, breathtakingly beautiful, and inspiring.
The area is roughly the shape of a triangle, with its base planted against the Alps in the north and its apex thrust downward into the northern edge of the Po Valley, about twenty-five miles north of Milan. From the St. Gotthard Pass in the north to the Italian frontier town of Como is only about sixty-five miles.
Ticino's physical beauty lies in the contrast between its 10,000-foot-high mountains, its medieval villages dominated by ruins of castles, its hilly, wooded areas, and its glacier lakes often times framed by picturesque but bustling towns.
Ticino was the poorest canton of Switzerland for many years. In the 1960's, however, Ticino was rediscovered by northern Europe as the Riviera of Switzerland. Ticino made the step from poor to prosperous in the blink of an eye, and the Ticinese population and infrastructure are still adjusting.
The dominant language spoken in Ticino is Italian. There is a Ticinese dialect that is predominantly spoken in the home. Many Ticinese also speak German and/or French. Cuisine is mostly northern Italian, with such popular dishes as polenta, risotto, and game in the fall.
