Our Italy Itinerary: Bonus Train Trip to Switzerland
In case you’re just joining this journey with us on our family trip to Italy, we’re on day 6 of the trip and so far this is where we’ve been if you’d like to catch up…
One of the things on our wish list for this Italy trip was to fit in a day trip to Switzerland because, why not, right? We were aware of the popular Bernina Express train ride through the Swiss and Italian Alps and so we booked our tickets and put it on the itinerary! And we could not believe the views.
Abby had done the research for us on this train ride and we learned there are options for this ride such as leaving from Milan or the small northern town of Tirano, and that’s what we did. It was about an hour and 45 min drive from Menaggio at Lake Como where we were staying to drive to Tirano where we boarded the train. We bought our tickets in advance HERE for the Regular Bernina Red for around 70 euros per person. You can opt for a panoramic train for more money, but we saved on the tickets and went on the regular train which was very comfortable!
There is no food served on the train, but you can grab coffee or snacks at one of the shops in Tirano before boarding.
The train ride is 2 1/5 hours each way to and from St. Moritz, with several quiet stops along the way.
Th entire ride is full of sights that are simply breathtaking.
As you climb higher and higher into the Alps, you begin to see snow and glaciers!
We arrived in St. Moritz to find it a cute town of high-end stores and restaurants which was pretty quiet. Apparently the summer is the off-season so some places were closed and there weren’t a ton of visitors.
We had brought jackets and sweaters and dressed warmer because we knew it would be a little chilly, but it wasn’t freezing.
We walked around, did a little shopping, and found some lunch…
This was one of the few places on our whole trip where we saw burgers and fries, so we went for that after having pasta and pizza for several days.
After, we walked some more and got a little dessert.
After a couple of hours there, we got some hot chocolate and caught our train back down to Italy.
It was definitely a beautiful trip that we all enjoyed and we highly recommend. Next stop of the itinerary coming soon!