Sundance, Eat Your Heart Out: Amy & Greg's Visit, including the Locarno Film Festival

Beers and brats and film festivals, oh my! Although arguably the beer and brats could easily be had in Chicago, Amy and Greg came to Switzerland to taste them against a backdrop of mountains, cows and glacier-filled lakes. You could also easily catch a film festival or two in Chicago, but where could you watch the films in an Italian-style piazza under the stars? None other than southern Switzerland, of course. What a fun-filled week we spent. We started the journey exploring Zürich with stops at the Jules Verne for a prosecco cocktail and a 360 view of the city as well as the quintessential Zeughauskeller for a sword of meat. Then we quickly made our way down to Ticino -- the Italian region of Switzerland -- to Locarno, home of the Locarno film festival (check out this website for more details: http://jahia.pardo.ch/index.jsp). Despite Locarno's stone's throw proximity to Lake Como, we missed seeing George Clooney, but we did see a number of local and international celebrities, including the directors of "Little Miss Sunshine" (whose film we actually saw in the Grand Piazza). The films were not the only attraction in Locarno; we spent our days exploring the mountaintop views of the Ticino valley and our nights enjoying the area known as "tent city" which contained elaborate food stands, live music, Middle Eastern tea bars (complete with hookahs!), and Amy's personal favorite, the bungee trampolines! So much to do, so little time. Our last day in the region, we took a boat ride over to the quaint town of Ascona, which truly felt like a taste of Italy. Gelato, anyone? Danke or should we say, grazie for your visit, Amy and Greg!