A magical journey on the Bernini Train

Travelling by train is by far my favourite mode of transport. I have taken lots of train journeys around Italy, Switzerland and Japan over the past few years. I have also travelled to and from several cities on mainland Europe. I love the sound of the train, the sense of freedom looking out the window and the hustle and bustle at stations.

A few years ago I started researching unique train journeys. One trip jumped out at me due to its close proximity to where I live – “The Bernina Express” from northern Italy to Switzerland.

When I worked in a villa a few summers ago, as an event planner, several guests had taken this trip. They all raved about it and said the scenery was breathtaking. While their photographs were lovely, I thought seeing the snow in that landscape would make it even more amazing.

The Train Route

The Bernini Train travels on part of a 384km network that goes through Switzerland and northern Italy. The route I took starts in Tirano Italy and ends in St. Moritz Switzerland.

Tirano is 429k miles above sea level and St. Moritz is 1,774 miles above sea level. The distinctive red train travels through part of a World Unesco Site which has 55 tunnels and 196 bridges and viaducts. 

Bernina Train Options 

If you are thinking of taking this trip – there are several things to consider. 

Do you want to go one way or both ? 

Do you want to stay overnight at one of the destinations ? 

Do you want to return on the same day ? 

All are possible and to follow is what I learnt, how I travelled and why !

Firstly, there are two trains to consider when planning your route:

The Bernini Express takes 2 hrs and 15 minutes from Tirano to St. Moritz. While prices fluctuate, one way tickets will cost approximately €40 for 2nd class and €70 for 1st class. You also pay a booking fee on the Rhaetian Railway website. Bookings include a reserved seat in first class.

This red train has large windows which curve a little allowing a view upwards.  A longer route starts in Chur in Eastern Switzerland and takes 4 hours to get to St. Moritz.

The standard Bernini train is also red and has two classes. The windows are not as large and do not curve at the top. I travelled in the first class carriage on this train. You can’t reserve seats so you do take the risk that you may not get a window seat. In December there was a train employee in our carriage on the outbound journey and a couple on the return journey. Therefore I recommend going on a week day in December. I paid €102.00, including booking fees, for the return journey on the Trainline app. This train travels more frequently than the express one allowing more flexibility.

My train left Tirano at 9.30am and arrived in St. Moritz at 11.11am. It departed at 14.48pm and arrived in Tirano at 17.00pm. This train takes exactly the same route, as the Express one, but only stops when requested. Passengers have to press a bell to request a stop. Regularly the public address system announced extremely interesting details about the history and geography of the area. This was in three languages – Italian, English and German.

I might take the Express train at another time and travel on the longer route but I thoroughly enjoyed this trip. The views were just spectacular. Seeing it in the morning and then as dusk settled was wonderful. The white pristine show was beautiful against the blue sky. You could open the window all the way down and take photographs of the end of the train as it navigated its way along. We passed glaciers, travelled over viaducts and through small towns and villages.

I have selected my favourite images that I took along the way – see below:

Tirano

Myself and my friend travelled from Lake Como by car to Tirano. The 85km journey took about 2 hours. The route takes you along the lake and is extremely picturesque.

We arrived in the early afternoon and stayed in a small boutique hotel. It was about a five minute walk to the train station. 

Tirano is in the Valtellina region of Lombardy and has a population of approximately 10k. It’s very close to the Swiss border. The town has several cafes, bars, restaurants, churches and shops. The Catholic shrine of Madonna di Tirana, the ethnographic museum and the Basilica are some of the more popular sites. I didn’t get to visit these but I plan to on my return.

You can easily spend a day in Tirano wandering around and seeing the sites. Visiting is a great opportunity to sample local food and wine from the Valtellina region. The nebbiolo grape is local to Valtellina and Storzato is a lovely DOCG* red wine. Cured beef (Bresaola), Pizzoccheri** and Sciatt*** are all local specialities.

St. Moritz

St. Moritz is in the Swiss Alps and has twice hosted the Winter Olympics. It’s an extremely affluent resort. The small main street has shops with all high class global brands. Huge hotels overlook the lake and in December they all had massive Christmas trees outside them.

Myself and my friend had lunch in the beautiful dining room of the 5 star “Hotel Grace La Margna”. It was expensive – the meat and vegetarian burgers cost CHF49 (€53). But it was a treat, the food delicious, the restaurant luxurious and we were made extremely welcome. 

I walked around the town and really enjoyed seeing the beautiful buildings and the breathtaking views over the lake. Like most places in Switzerland, it’s spotlessly clean with spires and clocktowers everywhere.

Final Thoughts 

I am delighted I got to take this historic and picturesque journey. I highly recommend it and suggest you evaluate routes, times and costs before selecting what suits you.

I plan to complete this again and would love to stay overnight in St. Moritz. I’ll start buying lottery tickets to help with the cost !! But I also want to spend more time in Tirano and visit the places I mentioned above.

Sometimes when you experience a wish list item it doesn’t meet your expectations but this exceeded mine. I hope I get the opportunity to do it again and again and see this wonderful landscape change throughout the seasons !

• * DOCG stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e garantita. This is the highest classification given to a local Italian wine. You will see a distinctive blue wrapper on the top of the bottle to show this.
• ** Pizzoccheri is a buckwheat pasta cooked with cabbage, potatoes, local butter and cheese. It is usually served in the earthenware dish it’s baked in.
• *** Sciatt is a small crispy round buckwheat pancake stuffed with a local stringy cheese