Dog Friendly Tirano, Bernina Express and Chur

Our Journey

Train from Bellano to Tirano (1 hour 30 mins)
Bernina Express from Tirano to Chur (4 hours). Dog friendly but quite a squeeze and the conductor wasn't a fan of Nora touching the seat at all!

Our day began with a chaotic departure from Bellano, as our arriving train made a last minute platform change, sending us rand the other waiting passengers confused and sprinting down the stairs, across the station, and back up again to make it in time.

The direct train to Tirano, where the Bernina Express departs, was incredibly quiet, though this leg of our Italian journey felt more 'stabby stabby' Italy than pasta Italy.

We arrived in Tirano two hours before our scheduled Bernina Express departure and fancying a change from pasta, we grabbed some lunch from Moro Burger which is in the main square outside the train station and surprisingly it was a solid burger! Whilst waiting around for the Bernina Express to arrive, we wandered around Tirano but on a Sunday it really didn’t offer much and seemed to just be a pass-through place between Italy and the Alps than a destination in its own right.

We booked our Bernina Express seats months in advance as many of the days were selling out quickly. While you can choose your seat row, you can’t pick the direction you’ll face or which side of the train you’ll be on.

Our four-seater section was pretty tight, and with another couple sharing our space, Nora spent the entire journey on our laps. I’m not sure how comfortable it would be with a bigger dog, but Nora loved it- probably just thrilled to be snuggled up rather than on the floor.

Our advice would probably be to book two seats opposite each other, as it is seemed from other people’s experience that it is unlikely that other people will book next you and then you are guaranteed at least one forward facing seat! And whilst people suggest there are ‘better’ sides to sit on whilst making the journey, depending on which direction you are travelling, none of this really matters once your journey is underway as you can just get up and wander the carriage to get a better view or see the alps from a different angles!

The Journey

The panoramic windows give incredible views across the landscape, from the breathtaking viaducts including the Brusio Spiral Viaduct and Landwasser Viaduct which you can’t grasp how they were built over a hundred years ago, to the many lakes with brilliant blue waters sat beneath snowy mountain ranges and glaciers. Even though the pictures are incredible, they do not come close to doing the experience justice.

Even though the journey is about 4 hours you can’t stop glaring out the window until the trains descends into Chur (not pronounced how you think at all, and more like ‘khur’!).

A Quick Stop in Chur

We had just one night in Switzerland’s oldest town before catching our train to Lucerne the next morning, so after hauling ourselves up the hill to our accommodation, we immediately headed out for food.

Even though by the time we were walking around it was dark, it’s clear that the oldest town in Switzerland, Chur, is a beautiful, traditional Alpine town with historical and picturesque buildings everywhere you turn.

It is a shame that we were only there for a quick stop over and it happened to also be a Sunday, as everywhere was closed with only a handful of restaurants open. We sat down at one of the only restaurants open, Fondue Beizli, which also was one of the places we had researched beforehand but sadly it was underwhelming and not we would recommend.

After a long but incredible day of traveling, we called it an early night, ready for the next adventure in Lucerne.