Casa Dolce Casa
- Rachel
- Apr 22, 2018
- 4 min read
So...we did it! We moved approx 1,000 miles away to set up home in Lugano, an Italian speaking part of Switzerland and so far we love our new home.
For those who read my previous blog on Lugano, you will know that I had my heart set on living in Melide. However, after seeing 8 (radically different) apartments from 8am -2pm on our snowy house hunting visit, we have ended up in Viganello - an area completely the other side of the city centre.
Viganello
The apartment in Viganello was one of the final apartments we saw and we knew it was perfect for us straight away. Our relocation guide helped us to see that everything we wanted about life in Melide was right here, and much less quiet and potentially isolating than Melide might be. I have since discovered that it is one of the few places where you can get brunch and coffee on a Sunday.
It is a little bit further for Mr W's commute to work, but it is within a 20 minute walk of the city centre which is perfect. On our doorstep there are some gorgeous parks and beautiful scenery and within a 5 minute walk, there are shops, cafes, restaurants and the beautiful lake itself.
Another 5 minutes brings us to the tennis club and the Lido - complete with its own 'beach' on the lake and a much sought after playground with a baby swing!
We are also right next to the funicular tram route up Monte Bre which brings stunning views like this... We feel so lucky to be able to experience it all - not least because the view from our previous house was the village carpark littered with (not so laughable) laughing gas canisters, a local hairdresser and a Chinese takeaway of questionable quality. I'm hoping that these views might be a bit harder to take for granted.
Our Home
We have moved into a four bedroom, four bathroom third floor open plan apartment. It is also complete with a utility room - currently a dumping ground, a large balcony at the front and a small one at the back. It's a stark difference from our two bedroom period terraced house with a small astroturfed back yard (in my desperation to believe we had a garden.)
It feels odd not to be continually struggling for space and Jude is also using up so much more energy zooming up and down that he is eating like a bloody horse. Unfortunately this also includes the soil from my houseplants. Any ideas of how I might stop this insanity gratefully received...
We are ordinarily huge fans of period features but the older apartments we saw here weren't quite the same, and although one did give us 'that feeling' it was totally impractical with a small child and also had a bathroom which screamed 1950s...but not in a good way. Plus, who knows how many bums those bidets had seen.
This apartment is the opposite end of the spectrum. It is brand new and super modern. Needless to say I was a little bit concerned about how the style (and meagre quantity) of our furniture would look in this vast space and I had spent ages arranging it and rearranging it all in my mind before we got here.
We also did an emergency IKEA run so that we could get the shipping company to bring an extra bed, sofa and TV cabinet in with the rest of the furniture...and with a bit of luck, build it for us (which they did! Thanks Ken...)
I needn't have worried though - it turns out that all of our stuff looks far better here and thanks to Command products, all our stuff could go up on the walls pretty quickly without causing any damage either. Bonus!
Fancy a tour?...
Main Living Space & Kitchen
I love the open plan aspect of this space and the fact that our chairs compliment the kitchen cupboards perfectly (please excuse the mess on the counter tops. I'm tired!) We were also lucky to be able to source some pendant lights from IKEA which work great with the colours too...as until that point, like every other new home in Switzerland, there were bare wires hanging out of the ceilings and walls!
Balcony
We completed this space this weekend with some deckchairs and additional greenery (aka more soil eating opportunities.) This is probably my favourite space, and since the sun came out we have eaten all our meals out here. The views are stunning - a complete surprise as when we looked at it the first time, it was so snowy that we didn't even know the mountain (San Salvatore) was there and thought we were massively compromising on the view! As you can see, Mabel's pretty happy too.
Bedrooms & Bathrooms
We've shuffled things around a lot here but I'm pleased with how all of the rooms have come together and I can't wait to have our first guest in May! Especially pleased with some ace bedside lamps we picked up at the DIY store here. They are a fab addition to our £9 IKEA bedside tables.
Playroom
This room will double up as an extra guest room as the sofa in here is a sofa bed. It's brilliant to have a room to keep all of Jude's toys in though and I hope he'll grow to love playing in this bright and airy room as he gets older. For now though, he is far too excited by playing king of the flippin' jungle!
If anyone has any recommendations for good thick playmats please let me know of these too by the way - I need to save the poor neighbours below from Jude's continual hammering of wood on ceramic tile!
Anyway, that's it for now - thanks for reading! I'll be back soon with more thoughts on our first couple of weeks and what adjusting to a whole new way of life is like.
Enjoy the sunshine!
Rxx
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