Switzerland with the accent and appetite of Italy: Lugano curls around its palm-fringed lake beneath the twin sugarloaves of Monte Brè and Monte San Salvatore, both climbed by century-old funiculars. Swim from the lido, ferry-hop to the impossibly pretty fishing village of Gandria and eat polenta under the arcades of Piazza della Riforma. The lake stays swimmable well into September, when hotel rates soften and the light turns golden. Milan is under an hour by train.
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