Bus to Italy … Bernini Express to St Moritz

We left Lugano behind by boarding a bus for a three hour ride that took us across the Swiss border into Italy. While the Alps remained, the terraced farming on the mountain slopes became much more extensive with local grape crops. In Switzerland, there would be occasional houses up the slopes … In Italia, there were entire small towns built halfway up the mountain.

We disembarked and had lunch … being in Italy, it was obviously a pizza cafe, which offered a welcome change from the slab meats and sausages of Germanic Switzerland!!

Another interesting sidelight of being in Italy was being introduced to the influences of the Roman Empire. In this case, it was the Roman road system. This route bordered the shores of Lake Como and followed an ancient roadway through the Alps for Roman trade routes. When we reached the end of our ride in Tirano, there was the remnants of the Roman road. The audio also provided information about a local church … it was reportedly built by a “date picker” at the direct request of the Virgin Mary. As a reward for his work, Mary stopped the Plague which was ravaging the countryside in the 12th Century. When the Cubs found out that this church was a ten minute walk from the pizza restaurant, they decided to walk up instead of eating. The pictures below are theirs.

The image above depicts the story of the church’s story. I was proud of the kids for forgoing a meal to feed their minds !!

The bus ride was actually an extension of the Bernini Express, only offered in the summertime. The real fun begins now … the train combines two old rail lines and stretches across the Alps from Tirano, Italy to Chur, Switzerland (roughly four hours). It traverses 55 tunnels and 198 bridges and climbs to near 10,000 feet in elevation. We got off in St Moritz so it was a bit shorter but every bit as impressive.

The two main thrills were at opposite ends of the ride. Shortly after leaving, the train actually climbs unto the Landwasser Viaduct and completes a 360 degree turn to climb elevation in a tight space. I had actually seen this on a TV show called “ The World’s Mighty Railroads,” or something like that. It was a bear to build and the trains had to be adapted to make the turns. I wish I had better pics of it, but my train photography skills are lacking.

The second thrill came as we reached the summit before descending down the grade into St Moritz … We were treated to a glacier at the top of the pass. My younger Cub informed us that she had never seen a glacier before, as she was either in school or working during our Alaska trips.

Then it was all downhill through the pass to St Moritz. In this final stretch, the train route paralleled the road, walking, and bike paths.