Morcote is one of those places I keep thinking about. I visited two summers ago on a quiet weekday and I felt in love with it; the arcades along the lake, the cobblestone alleys, the water, the way everything moved slowly. It doesn't feel like a place performing its own beauty. It just is.

I remember sitting by the lake with my friend watching people read and paint and have lunch with no particular rush. That kind of quiet is hard to find and Morcote had it on a completely ordinary Tuesday afternoon.

Parco Scherrer was the most unexpected part of the visit and my favorite thing in Morcote. Built between 1930 and 1956 by Hermann Arthur Scherrer, a traveler and collector from St. Gallen, the park stretches across terraced slopes facing the lake. Scherrer spent decades traveling the world and then recreating, on a smaller scale, the temples and gardens he had fallen in love with. A Renaissance fountain, a Siamese tea house, a bamboo forest, an Egyptian temple, all sitting quietly among palm trees and camellias with the lake below. It is one of the most personal and beautiful things I have ever walked through, and a place I love to come back every summer.