Date and Time of Visit: September 14, 2017, approximately 12:00 p.m.
An introduction to the last of the Italian-speaking villages.As of September 2017, there are a total of 27 villages registered as the most beautiful villages in Switzerland. Five of these villages belong to the Italian-speaking world.
It was around 9:30 when we left Poschiavo, the first village of the day after driving on the Bernina line. Poschiavo is the most remote and the most difficult village to visit among the most beautiful villages in Switzerland, so it was very difficult to get to this village and to the next one.
The location of Poschiavo and Soglio are shown in the Google map below.
As you can see, the route I chose in the end was the south side. At first glance, the route back to St. Moritz by route 29 on the north side looks closer, but as I mentioned before, you have to go over the Bernina Pass again, which is 2,253m high. We had already confirmed that the weather was not good. I didn’t have enough energy to go back and forth here, but I was prepared for it, but Dr. Google recommended the south side, so I followed it.
I thought that the southern route would be more difficult than it looked because it was only 117km long and took 2 hours and 25 minutes, but in fact, the Italian route, which went down the mountain once, was flat, in contrast to the Bernina Pass route that we passed through first on this day. However, the road was narrow and there were few main highways, so it took more time than I expected because of the intermittent traffic jams. However, this was also within the expectation of Google-sensei, and we arrived at this village just before noon.
Now, this village is located at the highest point in the deep valley (Val Bregaglia). According to the records, the village was formed around the 16th century. The church of the village was remodeled in the Baroque style. I thought it might be some kind of defense base because of its location, but as far as I walked around the village, I didn’t find any particular remains of walls, so it didn’t seem to play a role as a fortified city. I wonder if the city was built for religious reasons. I did not understand this area well because I did not find much literature, reference materials. There is almost no information in the official site.
Speaking of information, there was a tourist information center in the village, but it was closed because it was past noon. Basically, I don’t know when the tourist information center in the country village is open, and it is almost certainly closed for about two hours at noon.
Nevertheless, it was a very nice village. The weather was disappointing, but it was pleasant to walk around. It certainly didn’t have the same sophistication as a French village, but the atmosphere of the houses and alleys was unique, and I think it had an air of being unique to this region.
It might be a coincidence, but there were several tourist buses parked in the parking lot and there were more tourists than I expected in the village. However, they often climb up the narrow and steep slope to the village, tourist buses. I think there were quite a few people (about 30 people?). I think there were about 30 people. Because it is a village with a population of only 167 people, the scale is also small, of course, I felt a lot of people even in this number.
By the way, it was about noon when I arrived, so it seemed that all the tourists were having lunch in this village. I’m sure they must have made reservations. But thanks to that, the only two restaurants in the village were full, so I gave up lunch. Instead, we were able to see the village slowly with few people walking around.
This is the end of the introduction of the five Italian-speaking villages. Next we will introduce you to the most numerous French-speaking villages (14 places).
