{"id":2131,"date":"2013-06-21T20:38:24","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T19:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T04:11:36","slug":"arrividerci-italia-guten-tag-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2013\/06\/21\/arrividerci-italia-guten-tag-switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrividerci Italia, Guten Tag Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day with almost no humidity; perhaps we shouldn\u2019t leave the Italian Lakes just yet\u2026..?\u00a0 But then again we only have 32 days left before our ferry back over the Channel to England and there\u2019s still all of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium to get through.\u00a0 So we used as much of the internet as we could during breakfast; the Italian sim card will be useless once we get to Switzerland later today, and then we hit the road north to Chiavenna.<\/p>\n

From Chiavenna we turned up the Valle Bregaglia and stopped in a car park at Borgonuovo.\u00a0 There is a short footpath that leads you beside a river up to a viewpoint for the Cascata Aqua Fraggio. \u00a0This was a waterfall that was really alive.\u00a0 As you came through the trees, still a little distance from the base, the water pouring over the two cascades seemed to create its own wind and blew the water everywhere.\u00a0 We got wet, the camera got wet and you really couldn’t stand there for long; but what a sight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney getting wet at the Cascata Aqua Fraggio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cascata
Cascata Aqua Fraggio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back at the carpark we thought we would use up some of our euro coins, so with a lovely view of the waterfall, we enjoyed drinking a hot cappuccino and a hot chocolate. \u00a0This was to be my last Italian, very thick, hot chocolate; I do hope they will be as good in Switzerland, I love the way you can\u2019t actually drink them, you have to eat them like a hot chocolate mousse.\u00a0 And to give us a good laugh, Rodney\u2019s final Italian cappuccino actually had chocolate sprinkled on the top for the first time !!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Hot
Hot chocolate Italian style<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We soon crossed the border in to Switzerland and I spoke briefly to the Italian guards and then also to the Swiss border guards, in Italian, and I have to say I am now thoroughly confused about which language I am supposed to be attempting.\u00a0 I may just start throwing in merci, danke, graci and thank you all together, just to get my message across.<\/p>\n

The valley was beautiful all the way, mainly following, or sometimes crossing the raging river Mera, which then became the river Maira.\u00a0 As we climbed higher, the road was lined with incredibly tall pine trees and every meadow that opened up was full of wildflowers in so many colours.\u00a0 We saw lupins in pink, white and purple growing wild beside the road and when we stopped at the top of the Maloja Pass, I picked a bunch of tiny wildflowers for my tiny vase in Eileen.\u00a0 The scenery up there was majestic, just what we had come to see, and Rodney thinks the cows are much better looking in Switzerland, they have such lovely dusky coco-coloured coats.\u00a0 I just like the bells around their necks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking back from the top of the Maloja Pass<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At 1,807m above sea level we parked next to the Lej da Segl, I don\u2019t think we could have found a more scenic lakeside spot for a picnic.\u00a0 We managed to sit outside, but whenever the sun went behind a cloud, we realised that we would soon be needing to pull out some warmer clothes from the bottom of our suitcases.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Swiss
Swiss meadow full of buttercups<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We continued on uphill, past the Lej da Silvaplauna, the Lej da Champfer and into St Moritz.\u00a0 We drove to the end of the St Moritz See (not sure why that one is a see and not a lej) for a bit of a look and then turned around to find our home for the next few days, Camping Olympiaschanze.\u00a0 It\u2019s a strange open field surrounded by thick woods and in the middle of the field is a massive electricity pylon and cables.\u00a0 There is clay pigeon shooting going on close by, but I\u2019m slowly getting used to the gunshots echoing around the valley; I\u2019m assuming they\u2019ll stop at night\u2026.?!!\u00a0 But it\u2019s only a 1km cycle ride into St Moritz and although this campsite is a lot more expensive, it does include internet access, so here we are.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be sleeping at 1,790 metres above sea level and I don\u2019t think the windows will be open, or the fan switched on tonight.\u00a0 Fingers crossed it doesn\u2019t snow!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The St Moritz See<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day with almost no humidity; perhaps we shouldn\u2019t leave the Italian Lakes just yet\u2026..?\u00a0 But then again we only have 32 days left before our ferry back over the Channel to England and there\u2019s still all of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8388,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/8388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}