[2025]
[Wednesday 23 July 2025]
Signature Tour: Lake Maggiore, Orta and the Matterhorn: Centovalli Railway
Illustration from the Flipbook
Flipbook:
- Today, you will enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Swiss Italian border and the Alps. You will take a boat trip along Lake Maggiore today to Cannobio; stroll along the promenade or relax before meeting the coach which will take you to the Swiss resort, Locarno.
Here, after some free time for lunch, you will board the Centovalli Train. This scenic railway journey winds through dramatic alpine scenery, past cascading waterfalls and picturesque villages. We will arrive in Domodossola where you will have some free time for a coffee or gelato, before heading back to your hotel by coach.
According to Riviera Travel “My account”:
Take a boat to Cannobio for free time before we travel into Switzerland to visit Locarno. Return on the scenic Centovalli Railway.
Cannobio
Long and relatively narrow, Lake Maggiore beautifully straddles the Swiss-Italian border and this morning you enjoy a totally different view of the lake as we take a private boat to Cannobio, where you will have some free time before joining the coach to continue into Switzerland, to the chic resort of Locarno, nestling below the towering peaks of the Alps.
Locarno
During our journey you will see ever-grander snow-capped mountains, their colours gently changing from pinks to greens and blues, as the sun, arcing across the sky, casts its ever-changing shadows. You snatch tantalising glimpses of lakeside life with the locals going about their daily lives, whilst birds of prey soar on the numerous thermals and colourful wildfowl rise and fall as the boat’s wake radiates from the stern.
Locarno is staunchly Swiss, but the twisting lanes and alleys of the historic centre bear more resemblance to Tuscany than Zurich, lending it a real charm enhanced by a fascinating history encapsulated in the mighty castle dominating from above.
Centovalli railway
After some free time, we board the narrow gauge Centovalli train for a spectacularly scenic ride as it winds its way through wild, romantic landscapes, pure mountain cascades, vines, chestnut woods and villages clinging to the mountainsides.
Named after the so called ‘hundred valleys’ through which it passes, the train features specially designed panoramic carriages so you can sit back, enjoying the scenery in all its glory as it winds its seemingly impossible way around the valley sides. From Domodossola we return by coach to Stresa.
I’d woken and was lying awake, and what I perceived as the sound of heavy rain started (03:44).…
Janet said, “It’s been raining a couple of hours.”
“That’s not the waterfall feature, then?”
“They turn that off at midnight.”
The sound stopped suddenly, though, as if turned off by a switch (04:24).… There were then subtle and “natural” sounds of rain.
Janet wrote: “I was up at 6.40am: I’d heard a cock crowing for ages (noisy bugger) at the crack of dawn, and there were loads of big swifts flying around and making a racket.” The implication is that she found the cock-crowing intrusive, and the noise of the swifts welcome, for she added about the latter: “Fab!” She said to me, “Good
morning…!” (07:15): my cue to take my turn in the bathroom. When I shaved, I saw in the mirror that the bloodshot left eye had improved, and the blood had sunk to the bottom and was only seen when I pulled down the eyelid. There was some worsening to the right of the iris, though.
There were many swifts wheeling and swooping about, so they must have had nests in the eaves of the hotel. They looked like the swifts back home, but my impression was that these were larger; as
Janet wrote: “big swifts”. What’s more, the sound they made in flight (“making a racket”) seemed more complex than the simple screeching of those back home.
We went down for breakfast (07:54). I had some very crusty brown bread with cheese and salami, orange juice, and coffee. Then we returned to the room (08:29) to get ready to go out. Kate’s posted itinerary said “Depart 08:45” for today, so we joined the gathering company marginally before that time, and when all were assembled set off to where we’d board the boat.
Thursday 24 July 2025 08:49:54
Stresa: boarding the boat to Cannobio
When all were aboard, we set off (08:53). Kate handed out maps of our first destination: Cannobio.
Map of Cannobio
[Click on image for an enlarged view.]
Most of the features, named in the captions of the photos taken on the voyage, are what I found out about much later, back home, by studying
Google Maps; perhaps the only ones that Kate pointed out were the Castelli di Cannero. She did tell us the story of the “Santissima Pietà” in Cannobio; this is given in the caption to photo “11:02:16”. Before we disembarked, she told us where and when (12:00) to meet up to board the coach for the ongoing journey across the border to Locarno.
Map, with places visited or seen today highlighted in yellow
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:19:26
Voyage to Cannobio: Verbania
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:19:26 (detail 1)
Voyage to Cannobio: Verbania
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:19:26 (detail 2)
Voyage to Cannobio: Verbania, Basilica di San Vittore
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:29:06
Voyage to Cannobio: Ghiffa
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:29:06 (detail 1)
Voyage to Cannobio: Ghiffa
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:29:06 (detail 2)
Voyage to Cannobio: Ghiffa, Chiesa della Santa Croce
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:52:54
Voyage to Cannobio: Castelli di Cannero
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:55:36
Voyage to Cannobio: Castelli di Cannero
Thursday 24 July 2025 09:55:36 (detail)
Voyage to Cannobio: Castelli di Cannero
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:17:12
Disembarking at Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:17:58
Cannobio: view south along Via Francesco Magistris
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:18:42
Cannobio: view north, the last of the disembarkers
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:22:00
Dolce & Caffè, Via Francesco Magistris 35, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:27:40
View north from Dolce & Caffè, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:32:50
Refreshments at Dolce & Caffè, Via Francesco Magistris 35, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:44:22
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà at the south end of Via Francesco Magistris, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:45:28
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:46:42
Proceeding to the west end of the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:48:10
West façade of the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:48:10 (detail)
Detail from the west façade of the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:49:38
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:49:44
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:50:20
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:50:30
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio (bottom left: replica of the “Pietà”)
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:50:46
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:50:54
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:56:00
Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 10:58:54
Proceeding down the south side of the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:00:40
Entrance to the chapel below the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:01:20
Chapel below the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:02:16
Chapel below the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio: replica of the “Pietà”, showing Christ standing between his Mother and St. John the Evangelist. A miracle is said to have occurred between 8 January and 27 February 1522, when the painting of Christ became animate and started to emit blood and tears, while a fragment of a human rib protruded from His wounded side.
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:02:50
Chapel below the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio: second chapel to the right of the first
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:03:04
Chapel below the Sanctuary of the Santissima Pietà, Cannobio
I walked up some steps to see whether there was anything worth seeing at the top of them.
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:08:42
Alley leading westwards from Via Francesco Magistris to Via Castello, Cannobio
When I got there, I looked left—
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:09:48
View south along Via Castello, Cannobio
—and right,—
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:10:08
View north along Via Castello, Cannobio
—decided that there was nothing to justify my calling
Janet to come up, and went down again. We found a gelateria. “[John] had a pistachio gelato and a
Lemon Soda, and I had a coffee (a real one by mistake)”, i.e. not decaffeinated.
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:20:18
At the Gelateria Bar Lago, Via Francesco Magistris 21, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:52:38
View north from Via Francesco Magistris, Cannobio
Thursday 24 July 2025 11:52:38 (detail)
View north from Via Francesco Magistris, Cannobio
“We met up with our group, boarded the coach, and set off for Locarno,”
Janet wrote, adding: “It was hot and sunny.”
Thursday 24 July 2025 12:03:10
Cannobio: boarding the coach to Locarno
Thursday 24 July 2025 12:12:32
“Valmara Dogana Brissago”: customs house on the Swiss side of the border
“We went on the Trenino Turistico. Such fun!”
Thursday 24 July 2025 12:45:26
Aboard the Trenino Turistico, Locarno
Thursday 24 July 2025 12:45:26 (detail)
Notice board for the Trenino Turistico, Locarno
Thursday 24 July 2025 12:46:12
Aboard the Trenino Turistico, Locarno
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:05:12
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:08:06
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico: passing Locarno railway station
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:09:20
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:15:32
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico: passing the Chiesa di San Francesco
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:17:38
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:18:49
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:20:18
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico: Sant’ Antonio Abate Parish Church
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:24:11
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:24:50
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:25:03
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico: approaching the Piazza Grande
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:26:24
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico: Piazza Grande
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:26:40
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:30:01
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico: Fontana Pedrazzini
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:30:23
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico: Fontana Pedrazzini
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:32:57
Tour of Locarno on the Trenino Turistico
“It took 45 minutes, by which time it was too late for lunch, but we had a drink at the station café — our meeting point.” Our rendezvous was 14:20 at the railway station. I decided to try an “Aperol Spritz” which had been mentioned by one or other of the tour managers. I enjoyed it, so this wasn’t the last time that I had it. I thought the jam jar with a handle welded on was a bit “naff”, though.
Thursday 24 July 2025 13:56:30
Aperol spritz and Coke Zero at the Locarno Station Buffet
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:00:00
Locarno Station Buffet
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:04:29
Locarno Station Buffet: the bill
There was a code for the toilets, but I couldn’t get in at first, because I’d failed to notice that a “#” character was part of the code. I noticed the Swiss railway clock in the buffet, which gave me a feeling of being kind of “back home” in Switzerland.
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:13:19
Locarno Station Buffet: the iconic Swiss railway clock
As we were gathering, mention was made of the “Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi” (“FART”). Indeed, the underground station to which we were about to head was a “FART” station.
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:24:26
Outside Locarno Station: unfortunate acronym
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:24:26 (detail)
Outside Locarno Station: unfortunate acronym for “Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi” (Regional Bus and Rail Company of Ticino)
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:25:26
Locarno Station: heading for the Locarno FART Station
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:26:10
Locarno Station: heading for the Locarno FART Station
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:33:40
Locarno FART Station: metre-gauge train to Domodossola via Centovalli
Most of the customers on Riviera Travel holidays are older people, so slightly incongruous-seeming were two youngish sisters (they’re seen together in the middle of the boarding ramp in the first photo of today, “08:49:54”). The major incongruity, though, was a young woman, who was on the holiday with her mother and grandparents. I named her “Bat-haggik” (“daughter of the Geek”). For I saw Grandad at the end of the train, looking down at the track. “Is it metre-gauge?” I asked him. Later, he came to me and told me that he’d looked it up, and that it is metre-gauge. That earned him the nickname “The Geek”. OK, so there’s a bit of inaccuracy here: he was grandfather, not father, so her mother may have actually been “Bat-haggik”. And as for being a “geek”, one might comment, “It takes one to know one.”
Bat-haggik
Thursday 24 July 2025 14:42:30
Locarno FART Station: boarding the train to Domodossola via Centovalli
Centovalli map
“According to the Flipbook: “This scenic railway journey winds through dramatic alpine scenery, past cascading waterfalls and picturesque villages.” But, as
Janet commented: “Beautiful scenery, but no waterfalls.… Then we returned to Stresa — and [en route] the scenery was better than on the train!” And “specially designed panoramic carriages” they might have been, but I found reflections in the window unconducive for taking photos.
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:06:55
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola: vineyard
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:08:48
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:11:30
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:12:53
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:19:27
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:28:00
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:28:07
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:32:14
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 15:37:18
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Janet wrote, “En route there was a terrific storm.” I noted that “rain had already started” before there was “lightning (15:51, and at times later).” That accounts for the hiatus of almost an hour in taking photos, and the raindrops on the window in the photo taken after it.
Thursday 24 July 2025 16:35:44
Views of Centovalli from the train to Domodossola
Thursday 24 July 2025 16:45:08
Leaving the train at Domodossola Railway Station
At Domodossola, we needed a toilet, and found one in the environs of the station. When
Janet uses public toilets, she doesn’t lock the cubicle door because on a number of occasions she has been unable to unlock it. “At our destination,” she wrote, “I got locked in a loo again — and I didn’t even lock the door!” I was waiting outside, having used the gent’s, and I faintly heard
Janet’s cries for help so alerted the attendant. Then we walked and looked around till we saw the rest of our group, and boarded the waiting coach. According to the
Flipbook: “We will arrive in Domodossola where you will have some free time for a coffee or gelato, before heading back to your hotel by coach.” But in fact, we went more or less straight from the station to the coach, then set off (17:01). The validity of
Janet’s comment about the scenery on the way back — “Then we returned to Stresa — and the scenery was better than on the train!” — is confirmed by the photos I took through the coach window. Still no “cascading waterfalls”, though! I looked in vain for the border between Switzerland and Italy on the way; I didn’t realise that we’d crossed the border on the train, and that Domodossola itself is in Italy.
Thursday 24 July 2025 17:05:50
Views from the coach on the way back to Stresa
Thursday 24 July 2025 17:15:00
Views from the coach on the way back to Stresa
Thursday 24 July 2025 17:21:52
Views from the coach on the way back to Stresa
Thursday 24 July 2025 17:25:30
Views from the coach on the way back to Stresa
We arrived back at the hotel (ca.17:50). I forgot to take my medications this morning, so I took them now (18:02–18:05). We left the room (18:12), and went back to the same restaurant as yesterday evening. I had an
Aperol Spritz as an aperitivo (a neat touch was the use of a
maccarone as a drinking straw); and, because the amount of wine per serving yesterday evening was so small, I selected the largest beer on the menu: 500ml of weissbier.
Thursday 24 July 2025 18:42:42
Drinks at Il Centrale, Via Principe Tomaso 27, Stresa
I had a “pizza diavola”.
Thursday 24 July 2025 18:49:38
Food at Il Centrale, Via Principe Tomaso 27, Stresa
We both had coffee (Janet’s was decaffeinated), and I had a glass of grappa.
Bill, issued “24/07/2025 20:00”
We left the restaurant (20:05), and made a cash withdrawal at the ATM at the nearby bank in the fork of Via Principe Tomaso and Via Roma.
Thursday 24 July 2025 20:08
Withdrawal from Banca Popolare di Novara, Via Principe Tomaso 6, Stresa (image from
Google Street View)
ATM receipt, issued “24/07/25 20.08”
“We were back at our hotel by ca.8.30pm,” Janet
wrote. “I had a shower, sorted my stuff, updated this journal, and we were both in bed at
ca.10.00pm.… We have done so well. Incredible. Who needs a sodding bungalow?!” That was the suggestion from
Janet’s (I guess, well-meaning) sisters, not all that many months ago. I was pleased that for a second day I went out without my walking stick, and managed perfectly well.
Two of today’s photos were taken with Janet’s camera, so I removed its
SD card, inserted it into the port in the computer, and used MyFinePix Studio to create a sub-folder “20230724” in “Pictures” › “DCIM” and to copy the photos (created “19:34”, according to
File Explorer; I can’t get the computer to show local time). MyFinePix Studio is a pain in the arse to use, but it’s the only means I know to change the file-names assigned by the camera,
e.g. “DSCF4234.JPG”, to ones incorporating the date and time when the photos were taken. In the same way, I copied 58 photos from my camera’s
SD card to “Pictures” › “DCIM” › “20230724” (“19:36”–“19:37”). Connected the phone to the computer using a USB cable, and copied 24 photos to “Pictures” › “DCIM” › “20230724” (“19:46”). Viewed today’s photos in
Windows Photo Viewer: deleted one (20:59: we’re back in CEST now) because it was a near duplicate of the previous photo; similarly deleted another (21:01), and another (21:05); and deleted another because it was much too blurred (21:06). There were one or two others that were also blurred, but I needed them to “tell the story”, show the sequence of events; I hoped, when I would have them displayed on the large monitor at home, that I’d be able to sharpen them a bit using
Photoshop. Shut down the computer (21:12–21:13); took medications; cleaned teeth (to 21:26); then lay on the bed while
Janet wrote up her journal for today (to 21:43)…, then lay down to sleep.
[Friday 25 July 2025]
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