MXP Airport to Mendrisio and Monte San Giorgio: Day trip

Switzerland's most southerly town is a quietly brilliant corner of Ticino — a place where Italian warmth, Swiss precision and a landscape of rolling vineyards and terracotta rooftops meet in perfect balance.

Main attractions

• Wander the atmospheric Piazza del Ponte, the heart of Mendrisio's medieval old town, flanked by the Baroque parish church of Santi Cosma e Damiano and framed by shady arcades
• The Museo d'Arte (housed in a former monastery) is the canton's leading art institution, with a rotating collection spanning the Renaissance to the 19th century
• Discover architecture by celebrated local maestro Mario Botta, whose Accademia di Architettura and Teatro dell'Architettura have helped put this small town on the cultural map

What to eat

• Seek out a grotto — Ticino's beloved traditional inns, tucked into hillsides and courtyards, serving polenta, braised meats and local Merlot grown on the vine-covered hills just outside town

Redesigned by architect Mario Botta and reopened in 2012, this superb museum in the tiny village of Meride is the gateway to understanding why this mountain earned its UNESCO status. It's a world-class institution in a wonderfully unexpected setting.

Things to do

• Explore fossil specimens of extraordinary completeness — marine reptiles, fish, crustaceans and plants preserved from a tropical lagoon that existed here 240 million years ago
• Come face-to-face with the Ticinosuchus, a reconstructed crocodile-like reptile discovered on Monte San Giorgio — one of the museum's most arresting centerpieces
• Use the multimedia displays to immerse yourself in the Triassic world of Monte San Giorgio before heading out onto the mountain trails — it gives the landscape an entirely new dimension

Take note

• Check opening hours in advance, particularly outside peak season, as they vary. There is an entrance fee
• The museum sits at the start of the geo-paleontological trail, making it the ideal first stop before any hiking