UNESCO: Treno Rosso & Bernina Line

Fun Fact: There are three UNESCO World Heritage Sites that are rail lines and this is one of them. It was added in 2008. The full UNESCO Site includes both the Bernina and Albula line, the Bernina line goes from Tirano, Italy to St. Moritz, Switzerland and the Albula line goes to Thusis, Switzerland.

Why is this even important? I quote from the UNESCO website: “The property is exemplary of the use of the railway to overcome the isolation of settlements in the Central Alps early in the 20^th century, with a major and lasting socio-economic impact on life in the mountains. It constitutes an outstanding technical, architectural and environmental ensemble and embodies architectural and civil engineering achievements, in harmony with the landscapes through which they pass.”

These railways, besides being beautiful, were important for the little towns in which they passed through; it connected them to the world. And I’m sure it was super difficult to build this whole railway in and through the Swiss Alps.

By the way the first Winter Olympics was held at St. Moritz in 1928 (and again in 1948), and only made possible because of this train line. That’s pretty darn important!

Enough history, now my experience:

It was a transportation-heavy day, bus from Milan (I did catch this one by the way!) to Tirano (about 3 hours) for a nice, heavy typical lunch and then to catch the train at Tirano to St. Moritz (about an hour and a half ride) then we had about an hour and a half in St. Moritz for wandering around, then back on the bus for a 4 hour trip to Milan. At Milan I caught a metro to Milano Centrale to go home to Novara (about an hour). Whew!

I am not a super photographer and I was spending more time looking than clicking, so if you want to see more (and better) photos I suggest you Google it.

By the way, this little bag of chocolate below was €12! St. Moritz is the city of all the rich “skiers.” I put “skiers” in quotes because I was told, everyone dresses to ski, but few actually ski. Silly Europeans. By the way, there was a family in matching fur (real) and Chanel fur boots. Yup. With the cost of the chocolate and this family, I didn’t need any more justification of St. Moritz’s wealthy status.