Day 25

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Up early to meet our tour bus at Central Milan by 6.45 am.

Today we are heading into Switzerland and St Moritz, on board the Bernina line express train.

Unfortunately it is a three hour bus ride to Tirano where we will meet the train.

We head north out of Milan, back up past lake Como and into the northern wine regions of Italy.

Travelling though many regions, all the grapes are grown on the sunny side of the mountains on man made terraces, due to the steep terrain.

This also means all harvesting has to be done by hand, as there is no room for machines.

After one stop we reach the town of Tirano, where we will eventually board the train.

First we have a look at the local church (not again) and then we have a two course lunch with foods produced from the local region.

Finally get on the train for our 2 and half hour ride from Italy up into the Swiss Alps and the ski resort town of St Moritz.

We get some info which tells us at 2253 metres above sea level, this is the highest altitude railway that operates all year round.

We are about to travel only 22kms but climb a staggering 1824 metres, with some gradients reaching one in seven.

As you can imagine the views are breathtaking, as you climb into the peaks, heading towards the last patches of snow left from winter.

The temperature on departure was a sunny 26 degrees and at the top it is only 15. You can see the weather change in the photos.

Arriving at St Moritz, it is a ski resort town for the rich.

It looks over a beautiful lake and is still surrounded by snow capped peaks.

The town is quiet, but all the exclusive retailers are there to serve the well off clientele.

We investigate a couple of Swiss chocolate shops and find some Swiss Army knives famously engineered by Victorinox.

One and half hours exploring is enough time to see all you wanted too.

Back on the bus and we take a different route home down a very steep windy road.

The 40 metre bus only just gets around the 19 hairpin bends, taking up the whole road. Its inches from scraping the guard rails.

Arrived back at 830 , which made for a long day travelling,but we feel it was worth it.

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Comments

[Liam]

Great spot
Looks fantastic how are going keeping up the pace of travel