The traces of the artists who once inhabited the village on Lake Maggiore are omnipresent in the narrow streets, which all lead into the Piazza G. Motta on the lake. This is also the venue for JazzAscona, one of the most important international jazz festivals in Switzerland, which attracts thousands of music lovers every year and lets infectious southern rhythms resound in Ascona. But culture can also be found outside the historic centre, on the hill above Ascona, in the middle of nature. At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of free thinkers settled on Monte Verità in search of a spiritual refuge. A settlement that later attracted internationally renowned revolutionaries, philosophers, writers, poets and artists.