Weggis, Switzerland

Weggis isn't in the middle of Switzerland, but it's close enough for our concerns. The village is located on the north side of Lake Lucerne, It can be reached by car if you feel like driving around the lake. A better alternative is to hop on a boat that goes between Weggis and Lucerne. On a sunny day, the views are excellent.

Weggis was rather independent in its early years, and was an ally of the Swiss Confederacy around 1332. When the town was more or less sold to Lucerne in 1380, the good people of Weggis weren't happy. For about 300 years, they were involved in the odd act of rebellion. Then in the peasant war of 1653, Weggis actually took the side of Lucerne ... which calmed the situation down a little. In 1798, Weggis became its own village again. 

It has a population somewhere around 4,000. Weggis has a hotel management school, and at one point it was said that more than 200 Chinese students were enrolled there. The biggest celebrity associated with Weggis probably is Rachmaninoff. He lived in the area for much of the 1930s, leaving in 1939 because of World War II. (Me, I would have stayed put.) Rachmaninoff wrote "Rhapsody on a a Theme of Paganini" in 1934 and "Symphony No. 3" in 1936.