Jenni goes to Milano: She'll be coming round the mountain

The start of a new year marks many things, and for the 3rd year running now, it also marks my annual January trip to Milano to see my best friend Laura and her husband Fulvio. Your first thought might be 'oh lovely, escaping to sunny Italy in the winter'. Wellllll, northern Italy is really just the same weather as the UK in winter, so it's not really sipping aperol spritz' in the sunshine as you might imagine. Ok Milan in January is fairly drab, but it does have the extreme geographical benefit of being next door neighbours with Switzerland. Which is basically perfect in January. So instead of filling the trip with finding new museums we hadn't explored yet, we decided to make this January trip a bit of an adventurous one!

I'm really hoping that this blog post doesn't give 'this meeting could've been an email' energy. This trip was my 8th visit to Milan so naturally I've long ago completed all the major tourist stuff. I still find new hidden gems on my travels but generally speaking, I'm not visiting Milan for Milan anymore; I'm visiting for Laura and Fulvio. Therefore I wasn't too fussed about heading out and finding something to do on my arrival day. I just had a very chilled afternoon at their apartment, catching up with the two of them and getting fed lovely meals. It's now an ongoing joke that when we go anywhere as a 3, they're mum and dad and I'm their daughter. A role I really leant into as I was weirdly excited to join them on their weekly shop. Foreign supermarkets are basically a tourist attraction of their own! When we got back, we had a team effort aperitivo (we made a dish each and mine was gorgonzola, quince jam and almond toasts) and then chef Laura made us a gorgeous dinner.

The agenda for Saturday is what should save this blog post from the whole meeting-that-could've-been-an-email debacle. During my visit in the summer, me and Laura were looking for good day trips to do and I stumbled upon the Bernina Express day trip; a visit to Switzerland and a ride on the famous scenic train. Naturally I thought it would be one for winter rather than summer so we earmarked it for my January trip. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't a cheap day out. The Bernina Express is expensive even if you just book directly for the train, but when you do a tour that includes pickup from Milan and time in St Moritz, it gets even more so. There are loads of tours on GetYourGuide but they're all around the same price; £120 per person for the day. We compared a few of them and ended up booking this Bernina Express and St Moritz day trip because the itinerary sounded the best by a small margin. It ended up a complete moot point because the itinerary we did wasn't the one described (it says in the booking terms that it's subject to change to give you the best possible experience) but there were no complaints because we had an incredible day. It was a bright and early start to get to the meet point and then after a sleepy drive out of the city, we stopped off for coffee and pastries before heading into the mountains. I love an excursion where the time on the coach is as much a part of the experience as any other. The views were amazing and we were finding out loads of interesting stuff from our guide about the local area in Italy (the history and culture), as well as the history of St Moritz as we crossed over into Switzerland.

The story our guide told us that stood out the most was that the town experiences over 322 sunny days a year! To the point that the symbol of St Moritz is literally a smiling sun. The weird part is that you can see we were in thick fog and snow right up until we arrived and then it was sunshine and blue skies; the change was instant! And very welcome. When we arrived in St Moritz, we had a little wander around the town and did a spot of shopping in a posh chocolate shop. Very expensive chocolate is my favourite kind. There wasn't a whole lot to see because it's a skiing town, so people staying there are mostly on the slopes or in their resorts (like the famous royal palace hotel) but it was cute to have a walk round anyway.

The coolest thing about doing this day trip in winter (pun not intended) was that the lake in St Moritz entirely freezes over. To the point that they ice skate on it, play ice hockey on it, and even host a polo match on it! We would've never managed to participate in any of that since we felt nervous to even walk on it. After braving it for a few pictures, we decided to stick to walking around it on the path. Solid ground for the win.

 

We all know the rule by now right? You're not really on holiday until you have a cheeky cocktail in hand. Considering we'd crossed over into another country, it meant we needed to find somewhere ASAP. We couldn't really have picked a more aesthetic spot! Segelhaus was right on the lake and had an amazing view - it was a great people watching place too. Switzerland is obviously an expensive place but it wasn't too bad; £6ish for a coffee, £12 for a spritz, £7ish for a beer. I don't know why you could possibly be ordering anything else? Although I did get a hot chocolate alongside my spritz because when in Switzerland and all that.

 

Then it was time to wave goodbye to St Moritz and get the train! It's always a bit risky if you're on a group trip because you obviously haven't had the option to choose your own assigned seat. Luckily me and Laura are both pretty scrappy so when the train arrived and the chaos and bustling commenced, we fought our way through and literally sat in the first available seat, which was the one at the end of the carriage in a 3 formation instead of 4. It ended up being the perfect spot. No one occupied the third seat with us and because we were at the end, it didn't feel as crowded as further into the carriage. There's a lot of people swapping sides and leaning over to get perfect photos from both sides of the train so it looked like personal space went out the window further down but no one really bothered to come up our way so we pretty much had the space to ourselves. It's really good as well as the windows come all the way down so you can get perfect views and photos with no glare. There is also known to be a "better" side on every Bernina Express trip and the guide gave us a little nod once everyone was seated to let us know that we'd won the toss of the coin and were on the better side.

 

Because our itinerary had changed since booking, it meant we were pretty in the dark about what time we'd be where. That paired with the fact that Switzerland is very expensive meant we'd decided to make ourselves a little picnic to hopefully be enjoyed on the train and it all worked out perfectly. We'd brought sandwiches (I was convinced Laura's hummus one would be soggy but you can see from her happy face that it was good!), fruit, crisps, and of course, prosecco! I'd read online that the Bernina Express had a dining service so we figured we'd be able to get some cups when they came round. It turns out there was no dining service and no cups in sight so we brought a touch of classy British energy to the experience and drank directly from the bottle. Haven't you ever heard that girls with class don't need a glass?

The Bernina Express was actually such a cool bucket list experience. Even though the lack of knowing what we were doing was a bit annoying, the itinerary change probably worked out for the better because we ended up doing the St Moritz to Thusis section, which is considered one of the best. It has all the viaducts, including the famous Landwasser Viaduct, and it snakes in an S-shape through the forest so you can get good pictures of the train itself. After we got off the train, our coach was waiting for us in Thusis to take us all the way back to Milan (around a 3 hour drive). It was a very long day as we headed out at around 7am and didn't get back until 8:30pm but it was so worth it! I'd highly recommend this day trip, especially in winter, and I love that Milan is in such a perfect location to be able to have experiences like this in the space of a day.

I'd had an early start for my flight on Friday and an early start for our day trip on our Saturday. A lie-in was well overdue on Sunday! We had a lovely chilled morning and Laura and Fulvio made me one more amazing meal before it was time for a bear hug goodbye and I was headed back home. I decided to make this January trip a bit of a flying visit because like I said, it's pretty terrible weather in Milan in January, and I thought I'd save myself some annual leave to use on a summer Milan visit! I wonder where the next one will take us...