While visiting the ancestral family home on Lugano Lake in Ticino, Switzerland I was pleasantly surprised to find and subsequently learn about this Green Coach Whip Snake also known as the Western Whip Snake (Hierophis viridiflavus). This snake is in a group called the coach whips because the pattern of scales grading down to the end of their tails looks like a braided "coach whip". This is snake is in the family Colubridae. Locally in italian speaking Ticino and in Italy it is known as "Il Biacco"!