British Residents’ Association of Switzerland

VISIT TO THE MUSEO DELLA DOGANA

Share this page

Welcome / Past Events / All Past Events / Ticino & Grisons Region / VISIT TO THE MUSEO DELLA DOGANA

We set off in a holiday mood, boarding our boat at Lugano Giardino, heading across the Ceresio for the Cantina di Gandria. There we could picnic on the edge of the lake, which was popular with the children who were comfortably dressed for the weather in their bathing costumes and clearly enjoying dipping their toes in the cool water.

A group of us chose to get something to eat something quick at the Grotto, next door, sitting outside in the shade. We were served quickly and there was plenty of choice to suit all diets and tastes. We then all set off on the short stroll along a pleasant path to the museum, admiring on the way a neat kitchen garden and the interesting stones.
All the boundary stones exhibited at the entrance to the museum, are Swiss Cantonal boundary stones which have changed over the past years and are no longer in use today.

A guide gave a short talk outside and showed us the duck who had chosen a fine place to nest in the middle of the flowers on the top of a big flower pot, placed exactly on the border between Switzerland and Italy, so the ducklings in the nest will be either Swiss or Italian depending from which side of the flowerpot their eggs hatch!

Inside the museum we were offered special glasses but as they were not a great success and much too heavy, we were not asked to pay for them. We were supposed to be able to see extracts from old films concerning amongst other things, smuggling in the old days. In fact it was much more interesting to see the exhibits and read the description in any of the Swiss official languages but not in English. The advantage of the glasses was that one could choose English as the language but some work needs to be done to make them viable.

Our boat returned directly from in front of the Museo della Dogana back to Lugano and our short expedition was much enjoyed by us all, especially since we had benefited from the half price rate for those with a half price rail card, as well as the group rate.

Penny Osti