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Cruise and Cook on Lake Lugano (a Risotto Making Lesson to Remember)

Cruise and Cook on Lake Lugano is an experience that one could never forget. I hope you add Lake Lugano to your bucket list and take this wonderful cooking lesson as my friend Cynthia and I did.

Grotto Descanso cruise and cook

If you’re following along on my tour of Italy and Switzerland from this past June, you’ll know that Cynthia and I were last in Lugano.

Disclosure: Cynthia and I were graciously hosted for our stay (accommodations and meals) by the Ticino Tourism Board and Switzerland Tourism (Swiss Travel Pass). As a Booking.com affiliate and Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. All opinions are solely my own.

I promised to share our Cruise and Cook adventure in more detail, so that’s what I’m going to do.

Lugano, Switzerland
Lugano, Switzerland

Cruise and Cook on Lake Lugano

The photo above shows where we walked from the train station (where we had met our lovely tour guide, Patricia) after returning from Bellinzona. She told us that Nicola, the owner of Grotto Descanso, was coming to pick us up himself to take us to his grotto.

Lake Lugano has many grottos which are small restaurants, many of which you can visit by boat. All I know is I want to visit them all!

Grotto Descanso
Grotto Descanso

Boat ride to Grotto Descanso

After walking down to the waterfront, Patricia caught sight of Nicola in his motorboat, and we climbed aboard. (Don’t worry, there are public boats to take you to the grottos if you don’t have private transportation.) Nicola sped his boat towards his grotto with Patricia keeping him company up front.

Cruise and Cook in lake lugano
Patricia, our tour guide, and Nicola, owner of Grotto Descanso.

It was the most perfect day for a boat ride, but those happen frequently in Lugano!

Lake Lugano panorama from the water

Although Grotto Descanso is located in Gandria, it’s across the lake from the actual village of Gandria. In the middle of our boat ride across the lake, Nicola stopped the boat. Cynthia and I didn’t know why, until we saw Nicola unwrapping the top of a bottle of Prosecco and grabbing some glasses: the royal treatment!

prosecco on lake lugano

It’s too bad we didn’t enjoy the boat ride over to the grotto!

prosecco on lake lugano

It was only about a twenty minute ride and we had arrived at Grotto Descanso. Do you ever have those times when you travel a very short distance, but feel as though you’re somewhere completely and utterly removed from where you’ve just been?

View from Grotto Descanso

That’s how it felt for me when we arrived. The grotto was so secluded and peaceful, it felt as though we were miles and miles from Lugano.

Cruise and Cook at Grotto Descanso

Grotto Descanso dock for cruise and cook

Salve greeting at Grotto Descanso
Greeting at Grotto Descanso with my sparkly sandals from Venice!

Grottos are called grottos for a reason. Before refrigerators were a thing, discovering a cool place to keep your food was a fabulous discovery. Caves inside of the mountain provided this function for the inhabitants of the area and they were able to preserve food.

Nicola took us into his grotto; the coolness and smell was reminiscent of  walking into my grandparents’ cantina in Italy. We then walked up the stairs to the main part of the restaurant and seating areas outside.

Grotto Descanso

The entire place is just dreamy. I could have been quite happy to have vacationed here for two weeks!

Grotto Descanso on Lake Lugano, Switzerland (cruise and cook)

However, we weren’t there to vacation, we were there to cook and eat! Nicola led us to an area that was prepped for an outdoor cooking lesson to make risotto.

Grotto Descanso Cruise and Cook

Some antipasti and wine were awaiting us, too!

Antipasto Grotto Descanso cruise and cook

antipasto at cruise and cook lugano

Nicola began making the risotto while we all nibbled the delicacies spread out before us, and sipped our wonderful wine.

Wine at grotto descanso

Risotto Making Lesson

Cruise and Cook lake lugano

All the ingredients were prepped, and while I’ve made risotto many times, Cynthia was very excited to learn from a pro.

cruise and cook risotto making

We all took turns stirring and cooking the risotto and sausage, Luganighetta, which is local to the area and apparently, not too easy to source.

risotto and sausage cruise and cook lesson

For an actual risotto recipe, you can refer to my risotto Milanese recipe, which is exactly the same as the one we made, but with saffron. Risotto is ready in under 20 minutes, so if you think it’s a lengthy process, you’d be mistaken. Nicola served the rice two ways: with the sausage, and with finely chopped rosemary.

Lunch at Grotto Descanso

Risotto making lesson Cruise and Cook on Lake Lugano

forkful of risotto

Both preparations tasted sublime, and I can tell you the setting and the company just added to the experience.

Cruise and cook lugano

Cynthia and I were surprised when we finished our risotto as a plate of polenta and beef (polenta nel paiolo e carne stracotto). It was simply superb. Food tastes so much better when the quality is top notch.

Polenta and beef

Next, came a board of crostate which were hard to resist, even for Cynthia who doesn’t have a sweet tooth.

Sweets at grotto descanso

After some chatting, the time to leave came all too soon, but Cynthia and I had plans to go to Monte Bré. Later, we both agreed that this Cruise and Cook experience was one of our most memorable and enjoyable culinary experiences we’ve ever had, together and separately. Luxury can be different things to different people, and to me, this was definitely something I’d describe as luxurious.

cruise and cook lugano

Leaving Grotto Descanso

We all headed back down to the dock to board the boat once more.

Christina and Cynthia Cruise and Cook Lugano

Soon we were wistfully saying goodbye to Grotto Descanso, and hoping that we would be back very soon!

Cruise and Cook Grotto Descanso Lugano

Incidentally, I had driven along this part of the lake two years ago with my mother, on the way to Lake Como. We actually stayed in a village at the north end of Lake Lugano called Porlezza.

cruise and cook lugano
If you went all the way to the end of Lake Lugano in this direction, you’d end up in Porlezza.
 

In just a few minutes, Nicola was docking the boat to let us off in Lugano so we could walk to the funicular of Monte Bré. We thanked him profusely for the magical afternoon and walked ashore.

View of Lake Lugano

We also said our goodbyes to Patricia, who had been a wonderful tour guide that day.

Patricia, our Lugano tour guide

I can’t even tell you how many more photos I have of Lugano and the surrounding regions that we visited. It is such a gorgeous area that I hope I’ve enticed you to at least want to visit for a few days sometime in the near future. It’s wonderful in the evenings, too.

lugano at night

lugano at night


 

Here are some fun and useful links ~

Cynthia’s post on our Cruise and Cook adventure.

If you’d like to see my Instagram story from our Cruise and Cook, just click here.
You’ll see more of the risotto making in the videos.

More information about CRUISE and COOK.

Thank you to TICINO TURISMO and Nicola from GROTTO DESCANSO for hosting us!
You’ll find lots of information on the sites.

Lake Lugano from Monte Bre

Do you have any questions about our experience? Have you been to Lugano? Let me know in the comments below; I love to hear from you!

Christina’s Cucina is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

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18 Comments

  1. I can see why you could easily want to stay here for two weeks! What a most dreamy, romantic destination and perfection with a cooking class in there too! That boat ride in itself looked absolutely fantastic. Cheers! This is definitely on my ever-growing bucket list, Christina. Love all of your descriptions and photographs as ever.

  2. From the stunning scenery and lovely people, to the luscious wine and the delectable risotto, I’m thinking this experience is one that will stay with you forever. If I keep reading your posts my “must-visit” list is going to explode. ;-)

    1. Absolutely, Valentina! This sort of experience is what I love most about traveling. I think you need to start working on that list! Start checking some off as well as adding them on! :)

  3. You captured it beautifully Christina! What a magical day. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made risotto since we got back, and I put Nicola’s videos on my phone so my girls can watch him make it too and learn from the best. What I love about Italian-Swiss cooking and food is the utter simplicity and ease of preparation! I wish more Americans would take a cue from the European style and go back to using simple, but quality ingredients.
    I cannot think of a better experience for someone visiting Lugano, than to eat at a grotto!

    1. Thanks, Cynthia! It was so much fun to have this experience together. I know girlfriends, husbands and wives, honeymooners, mothers and daughters, etc., would absolutely love to share this experience with each other, too! My mother is dying to go after seeing my photos and reading this! :)

  4. Christina, we’re planning a trip next year to Austria. I have a thing about trains and we’re planning to take the Bernina Express between Chur and Tirano and back. I think your wonderful post has just added a stop on our journey. Such a beautiful area and the Grotto Descanso looks so wonderful, just our kind of place. If we get there, we’ll definitely have a meal there, even if Nicola doesn’t pick us up. Thanks for a marvelous post.

    1. It’s worth going out of your way to go to the Ticino region of Switzerland, Ron. I’ve heard the Bernina Express is an amazing train journey, so it sounds like a fab trip all round! I do hope you report back afterwards! Bon voyage! :)

  5. This sounds like an experience of a lifetime Christina! What a way to take a cooking class… I have been waiting for this post since you mentioned it on my risotto post. It was worth waiting for! Grazie!