Rail route of the month: a dramatic ‘back door’ into Switzerland through the Italian Alps

17.01.2024 - 12:07 / theguardian.com / Lake Maggiore

Frequent Eurocity trains dash north from Milan via the Simplon Tunnel to Switzerland. On the way to the tunnel, those express trains speed by Lake Maggiore, affording fine views of the Borromean Islands. For Switzerland-bound trains, the last station stop in Italy is at the small Piedmont town of Domodossola. The station here is remarkably grand, as befits what was once an important gateway into Italy, with all the paraphernalia of customs and immigration. From Domodossola, it is just another half-hour through the Simplon Tunnel to Brig, an appealing Swiss town that guards the northern end of the Alpine tunnel, before trains head on to Berne, Basel and the north.

If you don’t mind missing the gorgeous scenery around the Swiss-Italian border, then travelling via the Simplon Tunnel route into Switzerland is fine. Simplon darkness is no different from the darkness on the London Underground, though the Eurocity trains that ply the Simplon route are far more comfortable than anything the tube has to offer. But those not in a hurry can do much better by turning right at Domodossola, then heading east into the hills to find a beautiful back-door route into Switzerland by using a cross-border rural railway.

“Turning right” at Domodossola means heading down from the main station to a subterranean platform from which the train to Locarno departs. It’s a curiosity of this mountain railway that both terminuses are underground, but the intervening 30 miles offer a feast of fine scenery and no long tunnels at all. Indeed, some argue that the line east from Domodossola is on a par with the celebrated Bernina railway, which is the only other narrow-gauge railway crossing the Italian-Swiss border.

The minor railway from Domodossola is called the Vigezzina, though over the Swiss border it is more commonly called the Centovalli. Two companies – SSIF on the Italian side and the evocatively named Fart in Switzerland – cooperate to run about nine trains a day from Domodossola to Locarno. The journey takes just under two hours on a rollercoaster route through rugged Alpine terrain. The Swiss border is about two-thirds of the way along, and from here the railway crosses into Switzerland before dropping down to Locarno on the eastern limb of Lake Maggiore.

On boarding I am surprised to find a welcoming brigade of black-clad chimney sweeps on their way to a convention at Santa Maria Maggiore, the highest village on the rail route to Locarno. As we rattle out from Domodossola’s underground station into the sunshine, some of the spazzacamini tell me how the annual trip to Santa Maria Maggiore is a homecoming ritual.

“It’s a chance to go back to communities in the hills which sent chimney sweeps out to the farthest-flung parts of