Sunlight finds the frescoes before it finds the square.
Ticino Locarno
Locarno
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A handcrafted itinerary for Locarno.
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A short, curated list. None of them a chain.
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Hand-curated, walked before written.
Locarno sits at the northern tip of Lake Maggiore. Its Piazza Grande, lined with arcaded facades, opens directly onto the lakefront.
Above the old town, the funicular built in 1906 climbs 811 metres to the pilgrimage church of Madonna del Sasso, founded after a reported apparition in 1480. From there a cable car continues to Cardada, and a chair lift to Cimetta at 1,671 metres.
The town's mild, sheltered climate supports palm trees and camellias more commonly seen further south, and has made it a resort destination since the Grand Hotel opened in 1876. Every August, Locarno hosts the Locarno Film Festival, when the Piazza Grande becomes one of the largest open-air cinema screens in Europe.
Things worth slowing down for
A few of our favourite spots in Locarno.
An unique sideways chair swings open onto Lake Maggiore, with nothing between the seat and the air.
What makes Locarno slow travel perfect
Locarno is proof that a place can be Swiss and Mediterranean at once. The Alps close in behind the town, steep and grey, while Lake Maggiore opens flat and blue in front of it, and the air between the two carries none of the usual alpine chill. Palm trees line streets a short train ride from glaciers. That contrast is the whole appeal.
The old town rewards walking without a plan. Narrow streets open unexpectedly onto Piazza Grande, arcaded on both sides, where the pace slows by design rather than accident. Locals sit for hours over a single coffee. Nobody seems to mind.
The funicular to Madonna del Sasso takes eleven minutes and gains 372 metres of elevation, but the view from the terrace above the church is worth doing on foot at least once, the same climb pilgrims have made since the sanctuary was built in the 1480s. From Orselina, a cable car continues higher still, to Cardada and then Cimetta, where the lake shrinks to a strip of blue far below.
For ten days every August, the town gives itself over to cinema. Piazza Grande fills with thousands of chairs facing a screen the width of a building, and for that week Locarno trades its usual quiet for something louder and brighter.