Sleepy morning commuters or teenagers using it for school or leisure don’t pay much attention to what they see out the window of the train running the Chiavenna–Colico line, yet this route is also an excellent link between various points of historical, artistic, and natural interest, as well as simple holiday leisure, across the whole Valchiavenna plain. It feels like a distant memory when old, slow carriages ran only rarely, back when that same line was destined to be shut down as a “dead branch” of the rail transport system. Today the trains are new and comfortable, with a regular hourly service from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the week, while fares remain very affordable and travel times are competitive with driving. Chiavenna’s current railway station is a perfect starting point for a journey between mountains and lake, thanks to the ample nearby parking, its proximity to the historic center, and the presence of the Tourist Board’s information desks, useful even for last-minute questions. The option of covering part of the trip by bicycle or on foot — thanks to train stops not far from the network of cycle-pedestrian paths across the Valchiavenna plain — makes the prospect of a train journey even more adaptable to the needs and schedules of individual travelers.
All of this makes this mode of transport a valid option for tourism as well, a convenient choice for those who prefer to avoid driving in traffic or the long walking times between destinations far apart from one another. It’s a route where every stop can become the discovery of a corner of lower Valchiavenna, every glimpse from the window a new perspective on green spaces on the plain or on the mountains rising to the east and west. So let’s climb aboard ourselves and take in what can be seen. Even before departing, we notice that Chiavenna station is the northernmost outpost of the railways built after Italian Unification, with the line in operation since 1886, the final extension of the Milan–Monza line, which was the first railway built in 1840 in what was then still Habsburg northern Italy. Such an early presence in a small town like Chiavenna speaks volumes about the local economy of the time, a period when a range of goods were produced by Chiavenna’s lively industry, and barrels of the prized Chiavenna beer left the nearby crotti of Pratogiano to be transported to various parts of Italy via that same railway. A station that changed the very face of Chiavenna’s town center, with the opening of what is now Corso Matteotti and Piazza Bertacchi; a station well aligned toward Val Bregaglia, a reminder of the original plan for a Chiavenna–Saint Moritz line running along that valley, later superseded in the following century by the Bernina railway, considerably lengthening rail travel times to the Engadine.
That never-realized project was a sign of the spread, even locally, of an elite form of mountain tourism, seeking curative destinations and unspoiled landscapes, often using the convenient train. That same tourism would bring, in those very decades, the poet Carducci to Madesimo and the painter Segantini to Maloja. The direction of Bregaglia is also marked by the imposing bronze warrior standing right in front of the station itself, the crowning feature of the monument dedicated to Chiavenna’s fallen of the First World War, one of the most classically elegant to be found in Lombardy. We modern travelers, almost heedless, instead set off in the opposite direction to the one indicated by the calm giant. Leaving the station, the tracks run alongside the Valcondria ridge, at whose base lie the rustic crotti of Alpetto, seen from above, past the fine stone arch bridge built to cross that dip in the land. Looking west as we move forward, the view stretches beyond the rise on which Chiavenna sits, toward the plain of the nearby districts of Tanno, up the gentle slope of Raschi, until, at its peak, the bell tower of the church of San Gregorio comes into view, in the hamlet of Bette — the last edge of Chiavenna at the mouth of Valle Spluga, which opens up vertically, framed by the jagged crown of the Truzzo peaks and, on the other side, by the sheer rock face of Dalò — a sort of Chiavenna’s Bellagio, marking the divide not between two branches of a lake, but between the two upper valleys: Spluga and Bregaglia. The first station reached is Prata Camportaccio, where the view from the train over the northern valleys and over Chiavenna itself is excellent. Very close to the railway, this village retains a charming cluster of crotti, a possible short stop along the way. Continuing the journey, we’re accompanied by the slow, parallel flow of the Mera, the river that runs the length of the valley from Bregaglia before flowing into Lake Como, receiving at this point the waters of the Liro, coming from Valle Spluga. Still looking west, beyond the Mera, the view opens toward the village of Mese, where the imposing San Francesco hydroelectric power plant comes into sight, built in 1927 and inaugurated by Umberto of Savoy, the future “May King,” at a time when this plant was the most powerful in Europe, thanks to the abundant and steep drop of water through channels carved into the rock from the peak of Monte Cigolino, which towers over the village. Another, smaller power station — this one more modern and rationalist in form — can be seen not far from the railway, along the Mera; it is the substation built between 1948 and 1950 by three architects, among them the renowned Gio Ponti.
[The view then sweeps across] the chestnut-wooded slopes of Menarola and opens toward the mouth of Val Bodengo, tied to the sizeable village at its base: Gordona. Right in that direction stands the only hill on the Valchiavenna plain — the strategic wooded rise on which, in the mid-14th century, the Bishop of Como, Bonifacio da Modena, chose to build a castle. Little remains today of that defensive structure, apart from the still-visible chapel of Santa Caterina, a reminder of that distant medieval age when Valchiavenna and its passes were contested by many powers. Meanwhile, to the east, the railway draws ever closer to the rocky spur on which the soaring Pizzo di Prata rests, and we prepare for a change of scenery. The original rail route once ran outdoors, built on an embankment whose traces are still visible, before being replaced by a tunnel cut through the rock; as soon as we emerge from it, we leave the previous view behind, and the railway line adapts to the southward direction that Valchiavenna takes along this stretch. To the west, the cultivated meadows preceding the village of San Cassiano — the train’s next stop — stretch out below us. Looking further west from the window, we can spot a rocky spur rising right from the valley floor ahead of us. At its summit stands the Torre di Segname, a rare signaling structure predating the year 1000, preserved almost intact to this day and reachable via marked trails, from which the panorama extends north to Chiavenna and south to the end of the valley. As we arrive among the newer homes of San Cassiano, right by the station, we see two modern religious buildings nearby, a sign of more recent settlement. A small bell tower marks the little church that, since 1893, replaced the medieval one destroyed by flooding; while the facade of a private house not far away displays a fine 16th-century Marian fresco of the Luini school.
A little further south rises a new, spacious church, built in 1971, a tangle of broken lines evoking a stylized dove, an experimental design by architect Meroni. Continuing the journey, the train leaves the built-up area of San Cassiano, passing above the state road that intersects below — the very spot where numerous armed partisans took position after the liberation of Milan on April 25, 1945, watching and monitoring the retreat of German soldiers coming from Como, the same convoys in which Duce Mussolini was hiding; perhaps, had he not been discovered at Dongo, history books today might cite his arrest right here at San Cassiano. The next stop is Samolaco, the name of the large municipality comprising several hamlets, a reminder that this territory once marked the northern tip of Lake Como, a hub of the valley’s ancient transport routes between waterways and roads. The station lies in the hamlet of Somaggia, the only one located on the eastern side of the valley. Free of obstacles on the Samolaco plain, the railway runs in a straight line, while around the tracks numerous cornfields appear, along with meadows and dense woodland. The two mountain ridges that form Valchiavenna appear quite different from one another along this stretch. The one to the east, on the left, steep and rocky, seems to recall the vertical mountains often painted by Leonardo da Vinci, who did in fact pass through here. Describing Valchiavenna, the Tuscan genius also mentions waterfalls forming scenic viewpoints; besides the Acqua Fraggia falls at Piuro, he was perhaps also thinking of the Pisaròta falls, the striking waterfall that graces the rugged eastern side of the valley at this point, set within a well-preserved natural environment. The western side of Valchiavenna, by contrast, appears gentler and more wooded, shaped by the heights of the scenic Monte Berlinghéra. Along the foot of the mountain, the hamlets of San Pietro and Era di Samolaco follow one another; just above the latter, the white bell tower and nearby church of Sant’Andrea al Colle can be seen atop a rise — a charming scenic spot, ideal for an easy walk.
Reaching the end of the plain, the railway makes a sharp turn eastward, hugging the rocky mountainside and the state road. That spot is known as “la Riva” because, until a few centuries ago, boats carrying people and goods along Lake Como and the nearby Lake Mezzola used to dock there, arriving in this last small basin of water, today known as Pozzo di Riva, but once called Lago di Chiavenna. Even from the train, one can spot the docking points of centuries past, marked by embankments of local granite, quarried right beside the railway, just a few meters before this point — granite that takes the name San Fedelino from the site of its first quarry on the other side of the valley, near the small proto-Romanesque chapel built at the spot where, according to tradition, a soldier named Fedele was martyred, a splendid site reachable by trail or by boat. From Pozzo di Riva also flowed the canal linking to the fondaco-farm commissioned in the early 1500s by the military leader Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who controlled the territory during the brief French rule that followed the fall of the Sforza, before the long period of Grisons domination. Today nothing remains of that great farm, but the provincial road crossing the land it once occupied still bears the name Via Trivulzia, a reminder of that site’s past. Rounding the ancient harbor, the railway curves south again, reaching the village of Novate Mezzola, the next stop. A short distance from the station, visible from the train itself, stands the Baroque church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, whose present form and decoration are owed to the patronage of Francesco Giani, son of local laborers who, in the second half of the 1600s, became Bishop of Sirmium, living in Vienna at the court of Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg. Thanks to this position, Giani donated substantial sums of money for various works in Valchiavenna, funding renovations of his family home as well as the nearby church of Novate, his birthplace. The interior of the church, though modest in size, retains gilded stuccowork standing out against the white plaster background, framing numerous scenes frescoed by the painters Giulio Quaglio and Pietro Bianchi. Particularly striking is the dark, realistic canvas on the left-hand altar, depicting the Crucifixion of Christ, a work by the Recchi brothers of Como.
The overall decorative effect, already impressive for a village as modest in size as Novate once was, is remarkable when compared to other local and Lombard works of the same period, since Giani sought to bring the elegance of transalpine Baroque to his hometown. A short distance from the Trinity church, Novate also preserves the historical memory of granite quarrying and stonecutting, once widespread in the area, to which the Museo del Picapréda is dedicated. Near the station, one can also observe what remains of the more recent industrial past, seeing the skeleton of what was once part of the Falck steelworks — by now resembling a piece of industrial archaeology. Stopping at Novate Mezzola station, it’s common to come across groups of hikers or scouts setting off from here on foot toward Val Codera, a side valley of great natural interest, reachable only on foot via mule tracks and trails, including the Tracciolino, a scenic mid-slope path connecting Val Codera to Val dei Ratti, a little further south, following the route built during the construction of the nearby Campo Mezzola hydroelectric plant. In this stretch of Valchiavenna, in every season the color of the sky and the mountains is reflected in the waters below — first the Pozzo di Riva, then the broad expanse of Lake Mezzola. Shortly after Novate station, another curve to the east brings the railway to the northern side of this last lake, which spans the full width of Valchiavenna, touching both of its rocky sides. Beyond the lake, looking south, the nearest mountain profile reveals the scenic Foppaccia alpine pasture, offering a splendid view over Valchiavenna; further off, the outline of Monte Legnone can be seen, closing off the Orobie Prealps and marking the beginning of the Lake Como basin.
After Novate, the village of Campo Mezzola comes into view, with the simple bell towers of the churches of San Colombano and Santa Maria; then another curve and a subsequent tunnel open up the view onto the village of Verceia, where the train makes another stop. Continuing the journey, running alongside the eastern side of the lake and the cycle-pedestrian path, one can take in a broad view of the peaks of Valchiavenna, all the way to the distant Spluga border, marked by the profile of the valley’s highest mountain: Pizzo Tambò, rising to 3,279 m above sea level. After this brief glimpse, the railway curves again, following the lakeshore and offering a final view of Verceia with the bell tower of the church dedicated to San Fedele. There are several spots for dining, sport, and leisure near Lake Mezzola, easily reached by getting off at the Novate and Verceia stations, thanks to the nearby cycle-pedestrian path running along the lake. Leaving Verceia by train, we pass through a short tunnel cutting through Sasso Corbè, the rocky spur where, in 1848, the Chiavenna-born Risorgimento patriot Francesco Dolzino held off the Austrians for a few days by pretending to have a cannon aimed at the Austrian troops positioned further south — as commemorated, right at the end of the tunnel, by the plaque placed near the elegant public fountain. Alongside the railway and the road, the rock also features another opening: the Galleria di Mina, a First World War defensive tunnel that could be used to block road and rail links through a controlled explosion. It is a striking passage carved into the rock, never actually used, and preserved just as it was then. Continuing toward the natural end of Valchiavenna, the railway line reveals to the west the Pian di Spagna, a broad, walkable nature reserve that ends, on the opposite side of the valley, with the final stretch of the Mera, while halfway up the slope the small settlement of Albonico comes into view. The next stop is in the village of Nuova Olonio, in the municipality of Dubino.
The village’s name reminds us that it is a relatively recent settlement, tied to the 19th-century reclamation of marshy land, continued in the early 20th century by the Chiavenna-born saint Luigi Guanella, who created workspaces there along with a new church in Neo-Romanesque style. In a sense, this village replaces the ancient Olonio, a Roman-era settlement once located a little further south, which served as an access point from the lake toward Valtellina. The ancient Olonio, devastated by flooding and by the sediment slowly deposited in that area by the Adda River from the east, was eventually abandoned. Over the millennia, those alluvial deposits gradually separated Lake Como from its northern tip, today’s Lake Mezzola. Knowing this reminds us, beyond boundaries drawn by human hands, that Valchiavenna is nothing other than the northern stretch of the Lario valley. It is at Lake Como itself that our rail journey ends, crossing the present course of the Adda — straightened during the Austrian era — and skirting two wooded hills that hold the visitable remains of the 17th-century Forte di Fuentes, a marker of the old border between the Duchy of Milan and the Territory of the Grisons, and of the 20th-century Forte di Montecchio, used in both World Wars. A little further on, we reach the terminus of our journey: Colico station, already within the Province of Lecco. Stepping off the train, we see the nearby shore of Lake Como, with its historic little harbor, the pier for boat services on the Lario, and open grassy areas and lakeside beaches where you can practice water sports or simply relax and enjoy the surrounding scenery. The connection with the Milan–Tirano railway line, as well as boats and buses to Lake Como, opens up from here further possibilities for touring nearby, wonderful destinations.
