The main train station in Lugano is on a hill, and is connected by a short funicular railway to the city center.  Our hotel is located at the end of Via Nessa, the main pedestrian-only shopping street of Lugano which is parallel to and one block from the lake front.We stayed in this hotel during our 3 nights in Lugano.  It is a family-owned hotel, now run by the fourth generation.  The corridors were decorated by paintings done by friends of the hotel.  It even has a room exhibiting some of the equipment used at the hotel in the past.  The restaurants were staffed by men who was attentive in an old-fashioned way and seemed to have worked there for their entire life.  The food was not great but the ambience was rather retrochic-unique. Recommendable.