Ten days of diversity, relaxation and joy. This trip was planned as Cristiana and Tamas, Raul's sister and her husband, visited us. Cristiana also celebrated her 40th birthday with us, an important event worth to be marked with unique experiences and together with the dear ones.
The first day we went to Jucker farm in the morning where we served the brunch, then we enjoyed a calming walk by Pfäffikersee, and we finished the day with a visit in Rapperswil.
We spent the next two days in Zermatt. After 4-hours drive we reached a place where winter refused to leave and enchanted us with solemn landscapes covered in heavy snow. We took the cable car to Matterhorn Glacier Paradise as well as the train to Gornergrat. We had perfect weather which allowed us to have an unbounded sight to the stately mountain peaks. People were skiing on perfect slopes surrounded by enchanting 4000+ meters mountain peaks, which made us promise to come back here for the skiing season. We stayed at hotel Alpenroyal which offered a beautiful view towards Zermatt village and the Matterhorn.
Three hours away from Zermatt and we found the complete opposite atmosphere in Lugano. Summer was already welcomed by the inhabitants of this city, who were already sun bathing and swimming in the lake. Continental Parkhotel was our choice again, and probably every time we will visit Lugano.
We continued our trip and went to Italy where we completed our friends circle as we met Oana and Andrei. Our accommodation was the Al Segnavento villa, situated in the middle of a farm which included horses stables and orchards. We stayed for four nights here and we did day trips in the following three days.
One day we spent in Treviso. We admired the city architecture as well as the street art collection, including several stone mosaic pictures.
Since our accomodation was so close to Venice, we couldn't have missed the chance to visit this beautiful city. We started the day with an (expensive) coffee at Café Florian, one of the first coffee shops in Italy, opened in 1720. Afterwards we visited Basilica di San Marco, and took the boat to Burano. In the evening, we walked through the streets of Venice, took hundreds of pictures and admired the canals from the gondola.
A few hours spent in Burano can brighten the day of every tourist. The multitude of colors brings joy and freshness to this lovely little town. The shops were selling Venetian goods and souvenirs, predominantly lace, Murano glass jewelry and decorative masks.
The last day of the holiday was spent in the Valdobbiadene region where we tasted Prosecco from two wineries. We admired the hilly landscape full of grapevines, celebrated Cristiana's birthday at a fine restaurant and did shopping at the outlet stores we found on our way.