Ascona

10/5 Switzerland and back to Stresa
We did our ‘Lake Maggiore Express’ tour today, a fairly full day leaving Stresa by train at 10.30 – we had the option of going at 9.30am but it was still a bit drizzly so hedged our bets. We got talking to an NZ couple from Kati Kati on the platform, I think they were on an eight week trip just going from place to place as the fancy took them, train for most of it, booking a couple of days ahead. Kept running into them later, nice to chat. It was only half an hour to Domodossola (the train speedo in the carriage got up to 140 kph), skirting the lake at first (great view of the three small islands we’d visited) then starting up into the mountains. We passed some enormous quarries, one with big stones tumbling down, and another on a few levels where the trucks etc were dwarfed.

Domodossola – we had about an hour to wander round, the town square was a short walk away through little alleys and bigger streets, lots of nice shops if you had plenty of money to buy clothes. There was a tiny market in the square, just a few vegetable stalls and some clothes, nice and sunny with lovely old buildings and, of course, a church for me to go and look inside. A bit dark but some lovely stained glass, and very old, faded frescoes on the entrance walls.

Then it was back on the train into our assigned seats, lucky to get window seats facing each other and the aisle seats were taken by a very pleasant couple from Manchester who had lived for three years in Christchurch and Auckland, he is an insurance assessor and was sent out at the time of the earthquakes in Christchurch, they really loved their time there, children did well, in fact they left the oldest one in Auckland working.

This train trip was much slower, two hours, and it took us over 83 bridges and 31 tunnels (mostly short ones), some of the bridges were stone, old, on high arches, more like small viaducts I guess, and some were on a curve so you could look out and see the engine ahead of you. In some places the road ran parallel or down below, there were tiny villages perched up high with no visible roads going to them; you have to wonder if they’re like those ones you see on TV, houses sold for 50 Euro if someone will reno within a specified time. All seem to have a high church tower and all seem to be painted that soft browny creamy yellow colour with brown tiles.

There were a lot of tiny vineyards as we got a bit higher, not a lot of growth on them but still showing some green leaves. Lower down we saw market gardens, paddocks ploughed in wide strips with grass in-between, a few tree nurseries, and what looked to be rows of berry bushes in one place. There were azaleas showing colour, houses with huge stacks of wood beside them, and in some places just little ruins of houses miles from anywhere.

We had a great view back down to Domodossola from up high, then we were into the mountain trees, lots of high cliffs and a few waterfalls, high cloud fortunately as we’d had rain. It would be a very pretty trip in winter with snow all around.

Going over the Swiss border wasn’t obvious, in fact we saw more chalet-style houses on the Italian side. We’d had to take our passports but they weren’t checked at any time on the trip, I think you just have to take them in case you get stuck in the other country (we had to take them when we went across to Malmo as well).

It was drizzling a bit when we got to Locarno, not a great deal to see there in our 80 minute stop so we hopped on the little tourist train which was a really good idea as it took us away from the waterfront, much of the town slopes upwards, great views down to the lake. We passed through a few piazzas; the main town square we were told is turned into an ice skating rink in winter. The town apparently has only 16,000 population but it seemed bigger, lots of fairly high apartment buildings, quite big commercial buildings, a fairly big shopping area and lots of restaurants and accommodation as well as a fairly big marina on the lake and a very new-looking sports/aquatic centre.

The last leg of the trip was on a ferry, two hours 20 min down the middle of the lake (which is actually long and narrow) down to Stresa. We snagged a table by a window and sat comfortably for the trip, had a snack and drink and watched the scenery on both sides. The lake seems to be built up with towns and strung-out houses, not much empty space to be seen, such a contrast to anything you would see lakeside in New Zealand. The ferry was on three levels, made a couple of stops before Stresa and we watched a big tour group stream off at one point, that ‘cleared the decks’ for sure.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day, I’m pleased we were there at the right time to do that trip.

We had dinner again at the pizza place, easy distance and a repeat of Wednesday’s meal so definitely no complaints. Got our packing up done and we were all set to move on to Lucca on Thursday.Read more