Sottoceneri

Capo San Martino is a locality in the municipality of Lugano, Switzerland, situated on the eastern side of Monte San Salvatore, along the cantonal road that connects Lugano with Melide. As the name suggests, Capo San Martino ("Cape of Saint Martin") is a natural cliff overlooking Lake Lugano. Historically, the locality of Capo San Martino was also known as Forca di San Martino ("Saint Martin's Gallows"), because capital punishments by hanging were executed there. The last hanging took place in 1804.Until 1861, Capo San Martino was in Italian territory, as it belonged to Campione d'Italia. In 1863, Capo San Martino became a hamlet of Pazzallo, then still an independent municipality in the district of Lugano.During the 19th century, a lime furnace operated from Capo San Martino, along the lake shore. This furnace was just one among several others in Caslano, Melide, Castagnola, Pazzallo, Cimadera, and Melano, which exploited the abundant deposits of limestone of the Sottoceneri region for the production of lime.

Paradiso is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It lies on the shore of Lake Lugano and, although administratively independent of the city of Lugano, it is surrounded on all other sides by that city.

Lake Lugano (Italian: Lago di Lugano or Ceresio, from Latin: Ceresius lacus; Lombard: Lagh de Lugan) is a glacial lake which is situated on the border between southern Switzerland and northern Italy. The lake, named after the city of Lugano, is situated between Lake Como and Lago Maggiore. It was cited for the first time by Gregory of Tours in 590 with the name Ceresio, a name which is said to have derived from the Latin word cerasus, meaning cherry, and refers to the abundance of cherry trees which at one time adorned the shores of the lake. The lake appears in documents in 804 under the name Laco Luanasco. There are various mountains and tourist destinations on the shores of the lake including Monte Brè to the east, Monte San Salvatore west of Lugano, and Monte Generoso on the south-eastern shore. The World Heritage Site Monte San Giorgio is situated south of the lake. Also located to the south is the Cinque Vette Park. The lake is drained by the Tresa, which empties into Lake Maggiore, the latter being drained by the Ticino and the Po.

The Monte San Salvatore (912 m) is a mountain in the Lepontine Alps above Lake Lugano and the city of Lugano in Switzerland. The Monte San Salvatore funicular links the city with the summit of the mountain. The village on top of its peaks, Carona, is a popular destination to enjoy views over Lake Lugano and to walk through the exotic plants and flowers of Parco San Grato.

The Monte San Salvatore funicular, or Funicolare Monte San Salvatore, is a funicular railway in the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The line links a lower station in the Lugano suburb of Paradiso with an upper station at the summit of the Monte San Salvatore. The top yields a 360° panorama with views of the city, Lake Lugano, Monte Generoso and the Italian enclave of Campione.The line was built in 1890, and originally used an Abt rack rail for braking. It was rebuilt in 1926, when the two-axle cars were replaced by four-axle cars capable of carrying 70 passengers each, and the Abt rail removed. The cars were again replaced in 1957. In 2001, the line was extensively modernised, with new engine, gearbox, brakes and control system, and the 1957-built cars were given a new modern style body. The line has an unusual configuration of two separate single-track sections, with passengers transferring between cars at an intermediate station in Pazzallo. Each section has a single car, but there is only one engine and machine room which is located at Pazzallo, and the two cars counterbalance each other. The two cars are similar in design, but are not identical, being adapted to the different gradients of the two sections.Just after leaving its lower terminal, the funicular crosses above Lugano-Paradiso railway station on a bridge. This station is some 350 metres (1,150 ft) walk to the south of the lower terminal. Urban bus routes 1 and 2 of the Trasporti Pubblici Luganesi (TPL) serve a stop some 150 metres (490 ft) to the north of the terminal at Paradiso Gerreta. The funicular is owned and operated by Funicolare Lugano-Paradiso-Monte San Salvatore SA. The Monte San Salvatore funicular is one of three operational funiculars within the Lugano area. The other two are the Monte Brè funicular, which ascends Monte Brè on the opposite side of the city, and the Lugano Città–Stazione funicular, which links the city centre with the railway station.

Campione d'Italia (Comasco: Campiùn, pronounced [kãˈp(j)ũː]) is a comune of the Province of Como in the Lombardy region of Italy and an enclave surrounded by the Swiss canton of Ticino (it is also an exclave). At its closest, the enclave is less than one kilometre (0.6 mi) from the rest of Italy, but the intervening mountainous terrain requires a journey by road through the Swiss village of Bissone of over 14 km (9 mi) to reach the nearest Italian town, Lanzo d'Intelvi, and over 28 km (17 mi) to reach the city of Como.

Lugano-Paradiso railway station (Italian: Stazione di Lugano-Paradiso) is a railway station in the municipality of Paradiso in the Swiss canton of Ticino. The station is on the Gotthard railway of the Swiss Federal Railways, between Lugano and Chiasso. The station opened in 1945 and was renovated in 2018.

The Casinò di Campione is one of Italy's oldest Casinos, as well as Europe’s largest casino and the largest employer in the municipality of Campione d'Italia, an Italian exclave within Switzerland's Canton of Ticino, on the shores of Lake Lugano. The casino was founded in 1917 as a site to gather information from foreign diplomats during the First World War. It was owned by the Italian government, and operated by the municipality. The income from the casino was sufficient for the operation of Campione without the imposition of taxes, or obtaining of other revenue.The casino was declared bankrupt on 27 July 2018 and as of January 2019 it was closed; on 26 January 2022 it was reopened after three years of inactivity.

Pazzallo is a quarter of the city of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino. Pazzallo was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Lugano in 2004. Pazzallo lies on the slopes of Monte San Salvatore, uphill of the independent municipality of Paradiso that forms an exclave within the city of Lugano. Whilst the original nucleus lies on the higher slopes, the lower western slopes, towards the Lugano-Sud junction on the A2 motorway, are now more populous. To the south-east of Paradiso, Pazzallo has a shore on Lake Lugano.

Caprino is a village on the southern shore of Lake Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino, to the east of the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia and below the summit of Sighignola. Some 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) east of Caprino village is Cantine di Caprino, a smaller settlement. Politically both form part of the Castagnola-Cassarate quarter of the city of Lugano, although until 1972 Castagnola-Cassarate was an independent municipality under the name Castagnola.Caprino has no direct road connection with rest of the city of Lugano, or indeed the bulk of its quarter of Castagnola-Cassarate, which lie on the other side of Lake Lugano. An indirect road connection can be made via Arogno, Maroggia and the Melide causeway, but by this route Castagnola is some 21 kilometres (13 mi) distant, compared to under 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) across the lake. Cantine di Caprino has no road access, although it is linked to Caprino village by a footpath.Boats of the Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano (SNL) provide several crossings a day to central Lugano. Boats call at San Rocco landing stage in Caprino village and at Cantine di Caprino. Water taxis are also available.

Loreto is a quarter of the city of Lugano, in the Swiss canton of Ticino. It forms the part of the city which surrounds the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto to the south of the city center, and includes the Lake Lugano waterfront south of the city centre but north of Paradiso. In 2011, it had a population of 3,221.

Lugano was the name of a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, with its capital at Lugano. The canton unified the former Landvogteien of Lugano, Mendrisio, Locarno and Valmaggia. As with the other cantons of the Helvetic Republic, the autonomy of Lugano was very limited, the republic having been founded by Napoleon in order to further centralise power in Switzerland. The canton was led by a Directory of five members, who appointed a "national préfet", the first of whom was Giacomo Buonvicini. The canton was riven with dispute between "patriots", supporting the Cisalpine Republic, and traditionalist "aristocrats". The politics of the central government — the seizure of church property, the introduction of direct taxation, mandatory military service, an amnesty favouring Cisalpine patriots and a law regarding municipalities that rejected the secular tradition of communal autonomy — as well as the military occupation by the French Revolutionary Armies, with its associated violence and requisitions, all combined to maintain a level of hostility to the new régime within the local population, which eventually rose up against the régime. In Lugano, during anti-French protests of 28 April and 29 April 1799, the printer Agnelli's was looted and the abbot Giuseppe Lodovico Maria Vanelli and other Cisalpine patriots were killed; the préfet Francesco Capra, who succeeded Buonvicini earlier that year, fled and power passed to a provisional government sympathetic to the Habsburgs. Similar protests erupted in Mendrisio and Locarno. The arrival of Austro-Russian troops led to further requisition and pillage, leading to further shortages amongst the local population. French occupation was restored in 1800, with further consequences for the Luganese. Commissioner Heinrich Zschokke re-established the authority of the Helvetic Republic on his arrival; a new préfet was appointed, Giuseppe Giovanni Battista Franzoni. After two abortive attempts to unite Lugano with Bellinzona in the first two years of the 19th century, popular discontent, combined with fiscal pressure and a disastrous economic situation, led to a revolt in Capriasca early in 1802, which led to the autumn pronunciamento of Pian Povrò, named for the location of a district general congress, between Massagno and Breganzona, which declared the independence of Lugano from the Helvetic client republic. With the Act of Mediation, the following year, political agitation was finally quelled, as were the struggles between unionists and federalists; merger with Bellinzona was at last completed, creating the Ticino, which endures to the present day.