Last Fall we went to Switzerland and Italy. I am just finally getting around to sharing our trip! On the first day we went to a chocolate factory in Switzerland and then drove to Lake Maggiore! Below is Lake Maggiore!
We landed in Zürich and then drove to Bilten where the chocolate factory is located. The chocolate factory we toured is Läderach. The chocolate factory tour was 10 CHF pp but then you get 5 CHF off at the factory store. The tour starts with the star of the show: the cacao tree! Did you know chocolate comes from these huge pods?
The pods are broken apart, leaving the nibs. Then the nibs get roasted and then ground.
Unfortunately not all of the machines were running when we were there. We were all hoping for an I Love Lucy moment when she famously starts stuffing the chocolate into her mouth when she couldn’t keep up with the production line. Below, a look in the factory. Lots of storage for cocoa beans!
Alas, we learned later that hey actually decorate the chocolate at another facility and the facility we were at was where they strip the cacao pods down into processed chocolate.
Next comes the best of the tour… the tasting!! First, you taste raw chocolate. Have you ever had raw roasted chocolate? It is very bitter and honestly, horrible!
Obviously my favorite part was the chocolate fountains. There are dark, milk and white chocolate fountains.
You get your own chocolate tasting spoon. I may have gone back a few times to decide my favorite. I personally preferred the dark chocolate. We kept the spoons as souvenirs and use them to stir our tea and coffee at home!
After the tour, you get to shop! They have truffles and other goodies, but we love the sheets of chocolate like below. So delicious!
Unfortunately they do not have any shops in the USA! I think there are only a handful of shops located outside of Switzerland. A selection of their cute chocolate figures! Läderach seriously has the best chocolate EVER. If you are ever in Switzerland, please do yourself a favor and try some. 
After stuffing our face with chocolate, we then drove to Lake Maggiore.
Lake Maggiore is in the southern part of Switzerland and shares its shores with Italy. This part of Switzerland is called Ticino, which is the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. To me it felt more like Italy than Switzerland.
The views from our hotel were beautiful. Below is the view from our room. Hard to believe there are palm trees in Switzerland!!
We didn’t spend much time here. We were so jet lagged after being up for 30 hours. I don’t have many pictures since we essentially drove here, napped, ate dinner, then slept!
