If you have never seen the Matterhorn from the Swiss side or have never ridden the Bernina Red Train, you are missing something
If you have never seen the Matterhorn from the most beautiful side, the Swiss one, or have never ridden the Bernina Red Train, you have missed something.
Il Matterhorn (the Matterhorn beyond the Alps) is the most photographed mountain in the world. The unmistakable pyramid shape has become one of the symbols of mountaineering and of all of Switzerland. The fame of Zermatt, the car-free village at the foot of the Matterhorn, began in 1865 when the Englishman Edward Whymper was the first to conquer the summit. Today Zermatt is one of the most renowned resorts in the Alps. Here you can ski 365 days a year. Zermatt is also the arrival (or departure) point of the Glacier Express, the 7-hour panoramic railway route that connects the Canton of Valais to the Engadine.
But the most famous Swiss train is the Bernina Express, better known as the Bernina Red Train, a marvel of railway engineering that has been traveling for over a century connecting Tirano, in our Valtellina, to St. Moritz. The Red Train climbs up to 2.253 meters with sections of up to 70 percent gradient. Created for commuter transport, it is one of the most popular tourist railways in the world due to the spectacular nature of the territory crossed.
Switzerland is also the Aletsch glacier, a 23 kilometer long tongue of ice that connects Valais to the Jungfrau Region. It is the longest glacier in the Alps and entered the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001. You don't need to be a mountaineer to admire its majestic beauty. A visit to the Aletsch plateau is enough, where the traffic-free villages of Bettmeralp, Riederalp and Fiescheralp are located. Cars are banned here in both summer and winter. From the plateau, which extends between 1.900 and 2.200 metres, there is an astonishing view of the most evocative Four Thousand in Switzerland.
Switzerland is above all lakes. Large ones, like Lake Geneva or Lake Lucerne, but above all mountain lakes, bodies of water set in postcard landscapes. There are at least 1500 of them. Like Lake HĂ€rzlisee, at 1.860 meters above sea level, which is unique in its beauty or Lake Bannalp, reachable only by cable car or Talalpsee, which is located in a wild and romantic landscape in the Canton of Glarus .
But let's not forget the villages. Oberhofen am Thunersee, overlooking Lake Thun, in the Canton of Bern, has been defined as "the most beautiful village in Switzerland". But he's not the only one. Take, for example, Poschiavo, in the canton of Grisons, the only officially trilingual canton in Switzerland, where Italian, Romansh and German are spoken. Reachable by the Little Red Train, it is one of the most picturesque villages in the valley, dotted with small churches, museums and patrician buildings. Fortress villages, peasant villages, pedestrian villages: there are so many, all perfect and all worth visiting.
Source: 123rf
