TRENINO ROSSO DEL BERNINA

Red Train of Bernina

The Bernina's red train starts at Tirano at 429 meters above sea level and runs through a 60-kilometer cross-country across the Alps. It reaches 2253 meters of the Bernina pass (Bernina station) to step down more gradually and sweet at around 1800 meters of St. Moritz. It is the only train in Europe that climbs the free-wheeled mountain mountain rail, with a narrow gauge. It has become part of the Unesco World Heritage Site in 2008. The path is varied, stops, visits and walks that can be made are numerous and vary depending on the season, the snowfall, the physical conditions of each of us and of the time available. Deciding "at the table" is not easy. Perhaps the best thing is to come with us from Tirano to St Moritz. We will point you to the stops, give you the times of travel and the directions. Following the main stages: After leaving Tirano station and after passing by the elegant sanctuary of the Madonna di Tirano, the red train enters the Poschiavo Valley in Swiss territory. This is the steepest stretch that allows the train to cross the altitude of more than 1800 meters to reach the Bernina pass. After a few kilometers from the departure, in Switzerland, the train crosses the famous viaduct of Brusio, a symbol of the railway line. The helicopter viaduct, a true architectural and engineering jewel, has been designed to allow the train to overcome the altitude difference, stretching its path, the only alternative to the rack. The Bernina's red train can climb the mountain without using a rack (sprocket) and reaches a slope of 7% (every 100 meters can surpass an altitude of 7 meters altitude). The first stretch of the valley is it encounters Lake Poschiavo at almost 1000 meters above sea level. The valley extends and in the distance, to the right of the buttresses of the Bernina group, you see the same step, the top point of the route. (The stop of Miralago or the next one of Le Prese allows a nice walk around the lake) After passing the lake, the train passes through a large grassland before reaching Poschiavo, a beautiful hamlet from which the name of the valley, about 1000 meters above sea level From Poschiavo, the train hangs on the slope of the mountain following a different route from the road and allowing a view of Valposchiavo and down, up to Valtellina, really breathtaking. The train for gaining altitude enters a variety of bends allowing you to appreciate the landscape from right to left. It goes through the well-groomed maggenghi of the valley and in the forests of spruce prevalence. Approximately 1700 meters above sea level, the train arrives to Cavaglia, a hollow amenity for walks and for a visit to the park of Giant mufflers. Link The next stage, after the spruce forest has left its place in the larch forest, is Alp Grum at 2091 meters. The view on the Palù glacier, the Poschiavo valley up to the Valtellina peaks, the possibility to take walks to reach some not far away shelters or to stop in the station refreshment, makes this stage one of the most significant of the entire itinerary. Alp Grum the train passes the limit of the forest and between the high mountain pastures it reaches the Bernina pass, and runs along an artificial lake known as the White Lake. The milky color of the water is due to the "glacial flour" of the Cambrena glacier just above. Before starting the descent a sign indicates the watershed point three the Mediterranean sea and the Black Sea. After the barrier of the White Lake the descent becomes sweet among the mountain pastures. The Black Lake and the Piccolo Lake that immediately meet are two natural alpine lakes fed by streams and not by glacier water as it happens for the White Lake. Hence the different color and the different transparency of the water. After having left the departure of the two Lagalb and Diavolezza cableways the red little train, lowering its altitude and with a wide hairpin bend, arrives near the majestic Bernina group, whose main summit, the Bernina lace reaches 4049 meters above sea level. The glaciers that line the mountain range end with the glacial tongue of Morteratsch whose impressive retreat in the last century is clearly visible from the glacial moraine on the mountain slope. The Morteratsch stop is recommended for those who want to take a simple walk of about a now to the base of the glacier, in the heart of the Bernina group. Interesting sign panels of the withdrawal of the ghiacchiaio.Il train runs through beautiful forests mainly pine pine to get to Pontresina, at the mouth of the val Roseg, ideal for walks (also service of carriages with horses. Pontresina with St. Moritz has been a holiday destination for the rich clientele of the time: the impressive and refined hotels are testimony to it. After a stop a little longer than usual (in Pontresina there is a connection for trains going towards the Lower Engadine or Chur and back to Tirano) the red train has now reached its destination. Shortly afterwards the Engadine meets and after having turned to the west, leaving the characteristic church of San Gian with its two bell towers (of which the largest without roof) the train arrives at the station in St. Moritz at 1775 meters above sea level.

The Gardens of Villa Melzi
Villa Melzi d'Eril was designed and built in Bellagio by Francesco Melzi d'Eril, duke of Lodi and vice president of the First Italian Republic at the time of Napoleon. The project was entrusted to the architect Giocondo Albertolli and the works were carried out between 1808 and 1810. Erect in neoclassical forms, externally the villa is almost devoid of decorative architectural elements; it is only the windows that, with regular succession, create simple decorative motifs. The park of Villa Melzi was entrusted to the architect Luigi Canonica and the botanist Luigi Villoresi, who had already dealt with the arrangement of the Monza Park. The land was cleverly adapted with terracing and small bumps. The trees, apparently spontaneous, are the fruit of wise choices; to the traditional essences are added the exotic ones, typical of the taste of the age; The ornament is completed by a series of sculptures distributed throughout the park, such as the Egyptian basalt statue of Sekhnetz, goddess of war and a sculptural group depicting the encounter between Dante and Beatrice. aquatic plants including water lilies and all around, maples and Japanese cedars. Rich blooms of azaleas and rhododendrons, in the months of April and May, give life to the colorful meadows and slopes that surround the villa. Very picturesque is the small chapel on the edge of the lake. The current owner is Count Gallarati Scotti. The visit includes the chapel, the small museum and the park where wonderful groups of azaleas and rhododendrons alternate with magnificent statues.

Sigurtà Natural Park
The Sigurtà garden park is a 60-hectare natural park located in Valeggio sul Mincio, in the province of Verona, 8 km from Peschiera del Garda. Winner of the second prize of Parco Più Bello in Europe 2015 and Parco Più Bello d'Italia 2013.The Sigurtà garden park hosts innumerable naturalistic and historical attractions: in the months of March and April one million tulips can be admired, representing the the most important flowering in Italy and the richest in Southern Europe; the avenue of roses, which from May to September welcomes 30,000 reappearing roses; an extraordinary labyrinth, 18 stretches of water, where aquatic plants and immense green fields flourish between June and July. Without forgetting the Castelletto, commissioned by the Marquis Antonio Maffei, and in the past ancient arms hall, today instead a place where preserved the historical, literary and scientific memories of the Sigurtà family: here in fact are remembered scientists and Nobel prizes, guests in the past of the park: Selman A. Waksman (Nobel Prize in 1952 and discoverer of Streptomycin), Alexander Fleming (Nobel Prize in 1945 and discoverer of penicillin), Gerhard Domagk (Nobel prize in 1939 and discoverer of sulfonamides), Konrad Lorenz (Nobel prize in 1973 and founder of ethology) and Albert B. Sabin (discoverer of oral polio vaccine). Other rich enchantments of history and charm are the hermitage, a small temple in neo-Gothic style, the Horizontal Sundial that rises on the lookout of Romeo and Juliet, the Great Oak, the oldest tree of the parc or with its 4 centuries of age, the bronze monument dedicated to Carlo Sigurtà .... The Park was chosen among the locations that represent Italy during Expo 2015 within the Panorama Project in Piazza Gae Aulenti (Milan ).