Bernina Pass to Tirano on the Bernina Express

---

The day dawned clear, calm, cold and sunny over St Moritz and Celerina. It was a perfect day to go on the Bernina Express over the Bernina Pass toTirano in Italy.

We booked seats in a Panorama carriage but as it turned out there were heaps of seats available. In our carriage there was only us and a friendly Dutchman and his mother doing a special trip for her over the Pass. We had been here 5 years ago in the summer when we stayed at Poschiavo with our nephew, Wayne and his family. We knew then that would be a spectacular place to see in the winter, and here we are.

How do you explain a spectacle? You can’t. Suffice it to say that this a “must see” in Switzerland. It is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site for it’s beauty and engineering feat. From Chur to Tirano it is 122km of track passing through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges and viaducts. Today we went from 1775m at St Moritz, up to 2253m at the pass and down to 429m at Tirano. However, the facts gloss over the amazing engineering feats of spirals to reduce the steep gradient. Not just one but many spirals. We were told there was a 70m climb for each kilometer on the Poschiavo side.

On the beauty side, there was a thick coating of snow with skiers at the Pass. Lago Bianco was almost frozen over. It looked amazing framed by high alps up to 4000m. Further down at Alp Grum the small lake was a lovely aqua. The glacier we had walked on a few years back seemed to disappear in the snow, and water falls froze in their fall into long icicles.

Down at Poschiavo we remembered a particularly hard hike that Wayne took us on to visit an ancient chapel high up on a mountain side. It now looks perched on the edge and in need of shoring up. Below the town the valley narrowed with crumbling rocks cascading down dangerously close to villages.

Tirano is a small city in Italy just over the border, surrounded by tall mountains but it looks more temperate than where we’ve come from. There were orchards, vineyards and gardens and many eating places to be found. We had an hour and a half here and then it was time to return to Celerina, arriving at 6pm.

It was a most satisfying day seeing some of the world’s best scenery.

---

Photos

The lake on the Pass is nearly completely frozen
Skiers are starting early in this area

The spiral at the Tirano end of the line
The spiral is dramatic as it goes over a viaduct and then under it