Someone already lived in Neolithic times on the waterfront a little west of Ouchy- as it’s called now the port of Lausanne – but we have to wait still several centuries before the “official date” of Lausanne foundation.

Actually the Romans founded the small town of Lousonna in 15 BC, it became a flourishing trading town, but in the 4th century the inhabitants decided to leave the lakeside area to move on the heights overlooking the lake, which were considered a better-defending place.

By the 13th century Lausanne had became one of the largest cities of the region with nearly ten thousand inhabitants.

Nowadays Lausanne might be described, a little paradoxically, as a small Swiss San Francisco, a town of incredibly steep hills which has developed tiered above the lake on a succession of compact, south-facing terraces.

Lausanne is the capital of Canton Vaud, it means that, it should be considered “my capital city” since I’m an inhabitant of Canton Vaud, but for reasons which have not any rational basis, I tend to consider as “main town point of reference” Geneva, which is only 25km from my small town, but it belongs officially to another Canton, the Canton of Geneva actually.

I’ll spare to all of you a further and more detailed description of peculiarity of Swiss system of small cantons.

I rarely go to Lausanne, I just drive by it over the very intricate ring-road on the motorway, but I have not the habit to get there just to stroll over the lively little streets around the centre and simply enjoying that.

When I’m in Lausanne I always feel a little like a stranger, as if I were abroad, that it’s a quite absurd feeling, since it’s 35 km. from my home only.

This gallery is maybe an attempt to become more familiar with a town, objectively beautiful and interesting, which is not as familiar for me as it should be.