The Most Beautiful Train Journeys in Europe
A hundred valleys on a little train
The Centovalli line is the one the guidebooks forget. A small cross border train runs for two slow hours from Locarno in Switzerland to Domodossola in Italy, tracing a green canyon whose name means the hundred valleys. It crosses high stone viaducts over chestnut forest, passes waterfalls and stacked stone hamlets, and changes language somewhere in the middle without anyone noticing. In autumn the whole gorge turns gold and copper, and a regional ticket is all you need.
Distance
52 km Locarno to Domodossola
Duration
About 2 hours
Highlight
Viaducts over the chestnut gorges
Frequency
Roughly hourly all day
Interrail
Fully covered, no reservation
This is the great underrated route. It costs almost nothing, needs no booking and connects two famous lines, the Gotthard in the north and the Simplon in the south, yet it stays empty. Go in late October for the foliage, sit by an open window, and let it take all afternoon.