The Bernina train

This very short tour with my car in Switzerland is part of a longer journey made with my wife and our son in the Valtellina, Lake Como and the Milan Expo. I reached Switzerland from Livigno, crossing the Forcola border, open to traffic only in summer. Following Lake Bianco and Ospizio Bernina we descend into the valley as far as the famous resort of Sankt Moritz. We limit ourselves to a drive around the little town overlooking a lake for a panoramic view. The car parks are paid, and even though we changed some Swiss francs at a bank in Livigno, we have no coins. We retrace the road back to Morterasch, where we leave the main road and pull into a car park to see a glacier from afar. We return to the road that continues towards the Engadine Valley, passing in front of the cable-car departure stations.

At times the celebrated Red Train of the Bernina passes close to the road, at others we see it in the distance. At Ospizio Bernina we park in the square and walk to the shores of Lake Bianco, where the railway station is. The lake takes its name from the colour of its waters, fed by glaciers and melting snow. My son is thrilled to see, along the path, tiny traces of snow that he stamps on. We buy the train tickets from the automatic ticket machine and then board the first service which, after following the lake, climbs up to Alp Grum with breathtaking hairpin bends and stops at Cavaglia. Here we get off to visit the Giants' potholes, over which an interesting equipped trail for tourists has been built. Admission is free and a leaflet is provided with the route to follow. The potholes are embellished in places by the stream that helped form them.

Cavaglia is a completely isolated alpine pasture, reachable either on mountain paths or as we did. We wait for the train and go on to Poschiavo for a short visit to this Italian-speaking little town. We then take the next train and this time stop at Alp Grum to enjoy the mountain panorama offered by the refuge beside the station. It's a bit cold here, since we are high up, but inside the small automatic ticket office it's pleasant. We then take the train to Ospizio Bernina, where, having picked up our car, we descended into the valley, bypassing Poschiavo and seeing the helical bridge with which the little train begins its climb. In certain stretches the road is shared by the railway and the little train runs alongside us with no separation between us - a truly unusual situation. We return to Italy via the border near the Italian town of Tirano.

It was a short but intense day; we travelled the most interesting stretch of the little train, the one that breaks away completely from the road's route, climbing up high mountains. This allowed us a considerable saving on the ticket price.