Bellinzona

Bellinzona needs 1 day: walking the three medieval castles (Castelgrande, Montebello and Sasso Corbaro), connected by walls that once closed off the entire valley, in a single day. April-October brings the best weather. It's inexpensive for Switzerland. Its three castles, built by the Dukes of Milan between the 13th and 15th centuries to control the San Bernardino Alpine pass, form the only complete set of medieval fortifications of this kind preserved in Switzerland, and were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.