Opening My Heart to Lugano

This weekend we left Mabel with some friends of ours and travelled to Lugano. Although Mr W had visited the city before he accepted the job, I hadn't... so this was a BIG deal. 

All sorts of things have been running through my mind recently and I have been starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. I think a large part of it is the sense that something huge is shifting, but this would have been the same whether we stayed or left.

That maternity leave bubble can't last forever. And flippin' heck  - it doesn't even seem to last five minutes does it? We'll have an actual one year old in a couple of weeks' time, when it seems like only last week he was tucked up all cosy in the womb!

Anyway, while we will be offered the chance to do some flat hunting here at a later date, I needed to see the place sooner than that to help me keep my eye on the prize when times got hard. It was simple - visit Lugano, fall in love with its beauty and be filled with excitement to chase away those niggles of anxiety. 

However, to throw in a literary reference (you can't take the English Teacher out of the girl) once we got here it was all threatening to go a bit 'Of Mice & Men.' Okay, for those of you who have read it, it was perhaps not as dramatic as that but let's just say the best laid plans don't always work out as well as they have been... err planned? 

By the middle of our second day, I was feeling as trapped and tired as I was when we took Jude to an All Inclusive holiday resort in Greece aged 5 months. I might not have had the 30 mosquito bites to go with it, but I was feeling pretty down and trying to convince myself we hadn't made a momentous mistake. 

Day 1: The Arrival

We left the house at 9.30am after a very long night of very little sleep (thank you Wonder Weeks leap 7) and didn't actually get to the Airbnb in Lugano until 7 hours later when the sun was setting.

At every point we could have been delayed, we were delayed...and this ultimately meant that Jude, a very active baby, had been strapped into some sort of seat for the whole day. Cue: no sleep that night... but lots of stolen glances at the glittering lights of Lugano as we didn't figure out there was a blind until around 4am when we thought we were adjusting the air con.

Despite the glorious view, I won't lie when I say that at times it felt like a form of torture and neither of us knew if we'd see the morning without feeling completely broken. 

But we did. Morning came around and with it, strong coffee, buttery croissants and a fresh perspective.

Day 2: The Fog

It was foggy and freezing, but no less beautiful and we began our day with a walk along the tree lined promenade which led to one of the many parks. Jude enjoyed a ride on one of the wooden horses in the playground and he watched the swans in amazement.

We followed this with a lovely walk around the little city: a stunning mix of Italian, French & German influences, with the majestic Piazza De La Riforma at the centre.

The fresh air and calmness of the lake were just what I needed after waking every 40 minutes to an hour the night before. 

We found several places that were perfect for lunch, but then Mr Overtired decided to have a meltdown (Jude not Mr W) and we ended up in blimmin' Burger King force feeding him a pouch of food to take the edge off his 'hanger'.  You can imagine the scene - it wasn't pretty and it was indeed a fruitless task. 

We then headed to the supermarket for supplies (I've never seen so many types of dried meat in my life!) and back to the apartment so Jude could get a decent nap in.

He fell asleep by the cheeses entailing a double transfer from pram to car and car to apartment, which had to be executed with military precision. Marvellous - the type of challenge every parent relishes when they are wrestling the overtired on practically zero sleep. 

After refuelling with naps and food, we set off to have a look at a few different areas where we had seen potential flats. More meltdowns ensued, so I missed most of it trying to console a screaming baby. But from what I did see, none of it really looked like anywhere I could call home without a bit of a struggle.

Dinner was definitely not going to be out, so we ate in instead... but at least we had pasta and Jude did love every mouthful - unlike his pouched Mac and Cheese lunch.

We also managed to eventually get him to sleep at 9pm after watching through the whole of the Moana soundtrack (we have doubtless created a monster as giant as Te Fiti herself here)  

Day 3

It began super early but I will hands down take an early start for a better sleep than we have had in weeks. Jude only woke once in the night giving all of us back some much needed sanity. 

It was Mr W's birthday too so after he had opened his cards, we breakfasted on saffron coloured scrambled eggs with salty pancetta on toast (we won't starve when we move here!) and were relieved to see the sun peeking through the hazy fog at last.

After breakfast we packed up and went back down to the lake to see how it looked in the sunshine. The fog of San Franciscan proportions hadn't quite burned off so everything looked incredibly surreal. I think you could look at this lake every day and it would never look the same way twice. 

On the way back to the airport we stopped off at nearby Melide, a short train ride away from the centre and home to Swissminiatur. As we drove into the carpark, something in me changed. Not just because the sun was shining, but because immediately I felt like I could have a happy life here.

I had originally dismissed it for being too far out, but all of a sudden that didn't seem to matter. Gorgeously hued buildings lined the side of a ridiculously cute (and clean!) play area where I saw baby swings for the first time since our arrival - a good sign - and the perfect place for Jude to do some growing for a little while. The lido was gorgeous and the lake side walk just perfect for Mabel.

An elderly couple smiled at Jude and looked at us both with friendly, sparkling eyes and although they only said 'Buongiorno,' that one little word made me feel like I wouldn't be quite so lonely after all. 

After a slide and a snack, it was time to go home and do you know what? A large part of me was sad to leave. So until I see you again Lugano, alla prossima. 

I fell in love with you after all. 

Rxx