My husband and I enjoy mountain climbing in Ticino and northern Italy
(in the car, of course). Can anyone who's more familiar with Ti give me an idea of picturesque places to go. I was told at one point that in the summer when its ultra hot people drive to the mountains. And that there were places where you could observe mountain climbers and others repelling. We have been to Generoso (somewhat disappointing that you can't go to the top) and Volta Lighthouse and want to see more. Any ideas?

I can't really tell if you are interested in mountain climbing or driving up into the mountains and looking at people climbing mountains. If it is the former, here is a book that might interest you:

Ticino e Moesano

If it is the latter, that book could also help you find places to explore although many will require some amount of hiking. Otherwise, just get a road map and drive up the passes and look around.

What you want to do isn't called mountain climbing (that's done by people who don't drive around their oversized cars creating massive amounts of CO2..) but "Sunday Drive" (in German: Sonntagsfahrt), so the title is massively missleading. And no, Swiss in general are sane enough not to build roads onto mountains and into nature when it's not a transit route.

While there are some scenic drives (like St. Moritz to Lugano) those don't go "top of the mountain" but rather through passes. And usually have very convenient PostAuto services covering them.. which also enables great hiking to mountain tops, without having to return to the same place...

[QUOTE=YuropFlyer;3058939]What you want to do isn't called mountain climbing (that's done by people who don't drive around their oversized cars creating massive amounts of CO2..) but "Sunday Drive" (in German: Sonntagsfahrt), so the title is massively missleading. The title was meant to amuse (which obviously fell short). And as far as CO2 emissions go....we are too old to worry about that. We prefer not being brought down the mountain in a body bag.


Patxi, thanks for the suggested book.