It was on a Friday morning, the 27th of June, that Sylvia and I decided to go to Morcote, an attractive village on Lake Lugano, Switzerland. We took city bus number 3 to the downtown Lugano bus station. It was a very short walk from there to the lake. We purchased tickets and waited for the arrival of our ship. Once on board we were not long in moving away from the dock. We made several stops along the way, so that passengers could get off and on. We finally arrived at our destination, Morcote, around 11:30am. I was starving, so we immediately sat down at Ristorant della Posta for a wonderful, leisurely lunch.

After lunch, I decided to take the plunge and begin the long climb to my destination, the Church of Madonna del Sasso, which was hundreds of feet above the village. I had photographed it from the lake on previous trips. Of all the villages on the lake, Morcote, held a fascination for me. I simply had to find out what was behind those seemingly inaccessible walls perched so high above the lake. Sylvia had seen it a couple of times years ago and chose not to join me on my climb to the heavens.

What you see here records the pilgrimage in words and pictures.