A Brush With Italy

During our recent visit to Switzerland, we undertook numerous forays across the country. One such trip entailed the transit of Italy to the Italianate Swiss city of Lugano close to the country's southern border. The trip experienced some glorious scenery and a substantial cultural shifts! As with all trips from Saas Grund, we first had to travel by bus for 50 minutes down an often steep and winding, but visually brilliant trial to Visp and on to the railway station at Brig.

The first picture above shows the entrenched lower Saas Valley tumbling towards the Upper Rhone Valley running right to left in the background. Behind the Rhone lies the wall of the Bernese Oberland. Visp is hidden deep in the Rhone Valley out of view and the picturesque village in the foreground is Stalden, which has huge vertical extension between highest and lowest points. At Brig we caught the express to Milan. Immediately on leaving the station the train plunged into the famous Simplon tunnel, one of numerous passages from northern Europe to Italy. Somewhere in the middle of the tunnel we left Switzerland and entered the EU, though border protection was skimpy. The train then wound down the steep valley to Domodossola pictured below. The third picture looks across Domodossola towards the Swiss border.

From Domodossola we caught a neat little mountain train whose coaches had panoramic windows. The line wound steeply upwards through beautiful Italian countryside like that shown in the first two slides below. Have a look at the lush deciduous vegetation backed by snow-capped mountains

Then the line headed down through the Swiss border through scenery like that shown below - past vineyards atop gorges with fast-flowing water. Eventually we reached Locarno - famous for hosting international discussions about the future political landscape of Europe post WW 1.

Then it was on to the city of Lugano, which Phil and I selected to mark the 50th anniversary of our first visit there in 1962! Back then I thought Lugano an exceptional place. And so it was this time around. I'm sure you'll agree that the pictures below show a picturesque, stylish and urbane place draping the shores of Lake Lugano.

The dude on the plinth is, of course, one William Tell. After some energetic sight-seeing, dining and shopping, we headed back the same route - four trains and a bus - well satisfied with our day out!

AS