Today we covered many kilometres of Italy, by train and discovered the trains are pretty cheap but the taxis in Milan aren’t. It cost us 7e to travel by train from Verona to Milan (approx 75km / journey time 1hr 45) but 20e to travel 3km from Milan Central Station to our hotel. Although we weren’t staying in Milan today, the hotel had kindly agreed to store our cases to save us from taking them on our 156km journey, which was amazing because our onward journey involved a change of trains. Dragging suitcases on and off trains, and up and down long flights of steps isn’t why we came all this way.
Armed with our overnight bag, we bought two tickets to Torano and with minutes to spare managed to grab a takeaway lunch before we hurried to the platform. The train was more modern than the previous one we’d ridden from Verona and reasonably similar to the one we caught in Venice.
While soaking up the scenery, we noticed the mountain quarries outside Verona which we learnt was an important part of Verona’s local economy during our walking tour yesterday. It was surreal to see part of the mountain peeled back to reveal its pink marble or granite underbelly.
A while later the scenery changed again as mountains drew closer and the endless fields of maze to the left of the train gave way to water. Although we didn’t stop at the lakes, we caught many glimpses of them from the train window. But due to the speed of the train (80km/h) and the number of tunnels – some 3 or 4 minutes long, it turned out to be quite tricky to snap a few photos of the lakes.
We decided to travel by train to mitigate the need to a) hire a car, b) pay for fuel and parking and c) offset the stress of driving on the wrong side of the road, flanked by drivers for whom the only rule in the highway code they seemed to observe was any lane would do as long as it’s the quickest route to where I want to be! Constant lane changes/swerving and a healthy use of the vehicle’s horn felt like a mandatory thing – or at least the unspoken rule of the road.
The train from Milan to Tirano wasn’t direct and required a change at Colico. The seemingly helpful woman in the ticket office had omitted to tell us two vital pieces of information when we purchased our tickets. First, there was a rail replacement service from Colico to Tirano and more importantly, the paperwork she gave us wasn’t a valid ticket. To obtain a valid ticket we had to scan the QR codes on the paperwork and print the actual tickets. This we discovered just outside Colico when a ticket inspector boarded the train and demanded we pay again and the bill would be supplemented by a fine. To say neither of us were impressed is an understatement and you can be assured we’ll be having a few choice words with the ticket office when we return to Milan. The only possible ‘silver lining’ is the ticket inspector’s opinion was we should be able to use the paperwork we had to obtain our return journey to Milan as they were ‘open tickets’. I’m sorry to say we remain sceptical until we’ve proved him right.
The rail replacement service / coach journey here allowed us both to simmer down and frayed tempers to calm themselves as we moved away from DEFCON two back to the safety of DEFCON six. Compared to the train the coach seats felt cramped, uncomfortable, narrow and awkward. But I guess that’s the difference with seats all facing forward at set intervals and seats in twos facing each other yielding more leg room.
Our room is amazing and quite beautiful. All the rooms in this building are an extension of the Bernina Hotel down the road, but it’s only 3 stars because it doesn’t boast its own restaurant nor does it provide any ‘in-room’ beverage facilities.
Situated close to the Swiss border, Tirano is a provincial town which can’t be described as having any hustle and bustle. In fact, the only bright lights in Tirano after the sun goes down are the traffic lights! I’d read online that Tirano is busiest when the Bernina Express arrives with an influx of tourists, which I can say is 100% true. Many of the restaurants here close at 3pm/4pm daily and the rush hour relating to activity in the mountains behind Tirano are directly related to the time of day. Either everyone’s ascending in the morning and the road is packed (can confirm in tomorrow’s blog), or they’re descending in the evening and that side of the road is packed – which it was from 5:45pm/6:30pm.
Overall a slow day filled with travelling but enjoyable in its own way, but it gave our legs a break from the constant walking of the past few days. We’re both excited to be going on the Bernina Express tomorrow and really looking forward to it.
