Today because the weather was lousy we drove over the St. Gotthard pass and into canton Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

Right in the very north of the canton we took the Ritom Bahn, the steepest funicular railway (over 88 degrees!) up from Piotta to Piora. Not for the faint -hearted. I’m still amazed that the little train gets up the 800m climb.

That’s one of the joys of hiking in Switzerland. More often than not, there is a little railway or a cable car to save you the slog up from the valley.

One of the other joys is that the paths are so well marked.

I guess they have to be. One false move in fog and you could fall off a mountain. People do every year. On the whole though, the mountain trails are easy to follow and marked with red and white stripes every few yards to keep you on the straight and narrow.

Despite not quite perfect weather and the odd sprinkling of rain, the views were, as always in this beautiful country, simply magnificent.

This was one of the best….the Capanna Cadagno SAC mountain hut….and lunch! There’s a huge network of huts in the Alps – you can stay overnight, grab a coffee or lunch or just hang out and keep dry till the rain stops!

We aren’t taking gourmet cuisine, but it will fill you up and keep you warm. This was polenta with lentils and sausage. A HUGE portion!

We decided to take the old St Gatthard pass home – incredibly the road is still  cobbled for a lot of the distance and woe betide if you take a false move….not much in the way of barriers to save you. Mr Motorbike seemed to fancy himself as James Bond screeching round the hairpin bends in my trusty Mini….enough said!

We did however, meet this on the way.

The old St. Gotthard Post Coach on its way south.

I’m so lucky to live here. It’s quite a country!

Helen

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.