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Italiano (Italian)
Going on the Bernina Red Train was the culmination of a very itinerant tour made in the summer of 2015, practically solo and with my car, between northern Italy, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
The Milan expo
I began the trip with the friend with whom I had met in Dublin a couple of months earlier. I had just hooked up with the U.S. girlfriend and I didn’t feel it was appropriate to spend too much time with her, so we visited only the expo in Milan together (the tree representing the event is highlighted).
Walking around the Expo was fun and interesting, going back I would have stayed an extra day to see all the pavilions, although we still visited several of them.
Tour of Switzerland
She returned by train, while I alone began my tour of Switzerland (Italian and German areas) and Liechtenstein. Certainly the best in those parts is nature, but at that time I had not yet taken up trekking and visited more the towns, which are not bad at all even if small. The one I liked best was Lucerne, around its beautiful lake and with its wooden bridge.
I did not go to the French part where I had already been and visited:
- Zurich
- Vaduz (Liechtenstein)
- Bern
- Freiburg
- The Rhine Falls of Schaffhausen
- Lucerne
- Locarno
- Lugano
- Saint Moritz (by train from Tirano)
This is the tour map on my google maps.
Ride the Bernina red train
One of the experiences I remember best was riding the Bernina red train; with magnificent views through the woods, of meadows and high mountains, white even in summer. The railway is the highest in Europe and has some very steep spots.
It was also interesting to shoot in St. Moritz, as well as in the previous days in Vaduz in Liechtenstein. I had always dreamed of someday being able to say I’m going to Vaduz but in general setting foot in rich places to observe with detachment I find it interesting, even if I’m then there very little and not consuming. In the capital of Liechtenstein I was there for no more than an hour, but I would say that’s enough.
Always an hour or so I also stayed in Saint Moritz, while albeit passing through, I enjoyed the spectacular views of Mount Bernina.
In love with pizzoccheri
Of that round, however, the ending was memorable, which, as sometimes, it happens to me, I had left open to improvisation.
On the way back I had planned to sleep in a tent in a campsite in Valtellina. But toward evening I had found nothing, when I saw a sign for an agritourism at the beginning of a dirt road that climbed toward a Valtellina mountain. Through the open window came the distinct smell of apples; I was passing through an apple orchard and had decided what I would order for dessert.
Now I am a little ashamed to say this, but at the time I did not yet know pizzoccheri . Fortunately, my room was above the restaurant and I reached it almost by clinging to the stair railing and taking one step at a time for as long as I was full.
Home travel Travel in Western Europe, feeling like home
Previous Stage Blind Date, an evening in Dublin (Ireland)
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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