Romantik Hotels

14 Days of Love
Travel Thursday

Love is... Romantik

Hotel Laurin Salo in Italy.

In 2009, I blogged a segment on the Romantik Hotels in Europe, read previous posts here. Romantik Hotels & Restaurant prides itself as 'an alternative to the big hotel chains'.  "Be it as small as 6 rooms or as large as 90 rooms, in a town or a holiday area - the variety of the historic buildings and the individuality of every single Romantik Hotel are expressed within a broad spectrum. But no matter how different and individual each establishment is, all Romantik hoteliers are passionate hosts. The guest is always the central focus of attention."


I first discovered the Romantik Hotels, while strolling the cobblestone streets of Lugano, Switzerland. I was quickly walking with my tour group to meet our sunset cruise in the Ticino region on the Swiss-Italian border, but I was so taken by this particular restaurant, that I quickly fell behind the group. I risked losing them all together, but I couldn't help it as I was in a trance. It was so intimate with a small little terrace, sage linens, small vases with white flowers, and little candle lanterns. The tiny terrace was affixed to a cozy indoor seating; to which I peered in through old wooden window panes.

Photos via Villa Carona.

Not the same restaurant in Lugano, but similar.

I had a feeling wash over me, that I would one day return to this restaurant, since I was only in Lugano for the night. I had to pry myself away from the window, scurrying past shops in the piazza with hanging salamis to catch the tail end of my group. I like to imagine that I foreshadowed a 'someday proposal' in that little restaurant... maybe it was because I had marriage on my mind. I initally booked the trip to Switzerland, because I needed clarity after breaking up with someone a month prior who had been planning to propose. (He had already bought the ring. Yes, I still feel awful about that, but something was telling me, it just wasn't right. Besides, I've always said that my "yes" means more to me than my "I do".) Or maybe because, it had been one of the most treasured days of my life. I had begun the day with a train ride through the Swiss alps, my first lasagna lunch in Italy, then a drive along the northern shore of Lake Como, and attempting to order my first lemon gelato in broken Italian from an older Italian women in a little gelataria. Later arriving in Lugano, spotting that restaurant, and following up the evening with a sunset cruise on it's mystic lake of deep deep waters, and capping the night off eating potato leek soup and mushroom risotto at a little dockside restaurant on the Italian border gazing at the city lights of Lugano's shore. But also the realization that I would have never been there if the month's prior events had gone differently. That day and that trip forever changed me. 

Hotel Rossel in Austria.

Perhaps you don't know this about me, but I'm not a very mushy girl, despite the 14 Days of Love. In fact, if you really look hard, most of the posts are not written in Hallmark or Chicken Soup fashion, rather little things that make me happy and promoting to love one's self. Because let's face it, when searching for love, they say you should fully love yourself first before you are mentally capable of loving someone else to your full ability. (That being said, I apologize I haven't written too much on mushy love or my personal relationship, but I like to keep some things sacred for just the two of us.)

Happy Romantik Traveling!!