Travel Switzerland in the footsteps of Lord Byron, Mary Shelly...

... James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin, and many others who have used this beautiful country separated from the rest of Europe by formidable mountain ranges as a sanctuary to recharge their intellectual and creative powers.

Lake Geneva

Chateau de Chillon, on Lake Geneva Chateau Chillon

Lord Byron chose Lake Geneva as the venue for his mental rejuvination when he was 28 years old, living at the Villa Diodata in Upper Geneva. He was in the habit of making a daily boating excursion on the lake, and hired a boatman to do the rowing for him. Eventually, the legend about the Prisoner of Castle Chillon spilled out between strokes, and Byron commanded that they go to the Chateau. While visiting the jail cell that once held Francois Bonivard, the prisoner he then made famous in the poems The Prisoner of Chillon, he carved his initials upon one of the columns. When you visit, you can still see Byron's graffitti. Although usually fastidiously clean, the Swiss have left it there untouched.

Geneva

Today, the City of Geneva is...

called the World's Smallest Metropolis. It is Headquarters for the United Nations in Europe. But quaint villages and country estates still line Lake Geneva, calling you away from the city so you can sample the glories of nature. A range of the Alps stand at one end of the Lake, lending their majestic calm to the area. The many pleasure boats available should give you ample opportunity to book a daytrip and experience something of the peace of mind Lord Byron must have felt when upon the Lake.

When you return to the city, more than a thousand restaurants await you, with braised beef, fried pork, and the bounty from the lake in the form of trout, perch and exotics such as fera and char. Afterward, stroll along the Lake's quays and promenades. Or, if the mood strikes, take a whole fistfull of credit cards to the exquisite stores downtown and have some expensive fun shopping. Alternately, adventure in the Old Town section and see what less costly pleasures you can find.

Italian Switzerland

The town of Ascona is due East of Geneva...

although the road there is anything but direct. To go straight from one town to the other, you would have to go through both France and Italy.

A mixture of old and new, Ascona is host to both the lovely four-star hotel Ascovilla on Via Collina, which nestles in a romantic park near Lago (lake) Maggiore... and streets that remind me of the stories my father used to tell about being in Europe after WW2.

By the way, Lago Maggiore sounds Italian, doesn't it. There is a good reason. Most of the lake is in Italy. This might be a good time to bring up the question of languages in Switzerland. About three-quarters of the country speaks a sort of German called Schweizerdeutsch. The exceptions are in the southwest, around Geneva, where French is spoken, and the southeast, in towns like Ascona and Locarno where some Italian is spoken. Overall, only about 20 percent of Swiss speak French, and only 4 percent speak Italian. Schools require a second language, and are currently in debate whether to keep that German/French, or whether English should be required as everyone's second language.

If you speak German, or even Austrian, don't assume you will be able to understand Schweizerdeutsch. This spoken language varies significantly from canton (state) to canton. Perhaps most odd, Schweizerdeutsch has no written form... the Swiss write in regular German. So you'll be able to read written things well enough. But actually, the Swiss consider written German to be almost a foreign language. A little odd, but it works for them, somehow.

The French and Italian spoken in Switzerland is more similar to the languages of France and Italy. If you can be understood in Paris and Rome, you'll get along in Geneva and Locarno. Oh... and in case you wondered why CH is used in reference to Swiss things, it is because Switzerland is also known as Confoederatio Helvetica.

Now on to the Capitol of Switzerland
and the Swiss Alps in Summer
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