Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
Figure 50: "Capella dei morti" memorial
From there the walk took them along the historical pass road "Tremola" (Figure 51). On this road stagecoaches used to clatter in the past, where nowadays it is a famous touristic attraction. The "serpentines" (winding roads) with the explicit narrow curves are very impressing and are due to the large gradient of 933m between the Gotthard pass (2106m a.s.l.) and Airolo (1173m a.s.l.). The road is therefore unique and under monumental protection (TREMOLA).
Figure 51: Hiking path along the famous "Tremola" road
The path went quite steep and there were lots of large rocks and small waterfalls, which they could see from the nearby river "Foss".
The path was quite challenging, but fortunately they all managed to keep up together without any incidence.
From the "Val Tremola" they continued further a distance of approximately 1km direction to "Motto Bartola". The path was quite smooth. It went through a deciduous and mixed coniferous forest and continued further through wide pastures with large shrubs. Nicolas somehow got caught in a large shrub branch, but fortunately he didn't injure himself, he just snatched his shoe sole which almost came off. Giovanni remembered a similar incident that happened to a college of his when they were on an excursion together, his whole shoe sole fell off. Fortunately they were almost at the end of their walking tour and could already see from far the settlement area of the village Airolo with a beautiful blue lake (Figure 52). So Nicolas could somehow manage in spite of this misshapen.
Figure 52: The village of Airolo
The village of Airolo is located at the southern end of the Gotthard pass and is a community in the "Leventina" valley. It has a population of around 1500 inhabitants. Already in the year 1700 Airolo was discovered as a touristic destination, especially by aristocratic tourists from all Europe, due to its location and attractive landscape. Since that time already, Airolo became a favored destination for transit, as well as touristic traffic (AIROLO).
Figure 53: Cheese dairy "Caseificio del Gottardo"
In Airolo they spend the rest of the afternoon in the cheese dairy "Caseificio del Gottardo" (Figure 53; approx. 1km and 20min walking time from the village center) (CASEIFICIO DEL GOTTARDO). There they attended an interesting tour showing the different steps of cheese production. The cheese smelled so delicious. Claudia and Ueli had to buy a specialty of the house, the "Gottardo" cheese, which is a semi-hard cheese.
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From the cheese dairy they headed back to their hotel "Tremola San Gottardo", which was in the center of the beautiful historical village of Airolo. It is very popular by many tourists, particularly bikers, the rooms are named after the curves of the famous "Tremola" road (HOTEL TREMOLA SAN GOTTARDO). They were fascinated to spend the night in a hotel, which was different from the others, especially Andreas, who was a passionate biker. Entering in the hotel they were embraced by a delicious smell coming out of the cuisine of the hotel's own restaurant "Osteria", so they decided to have their dinner there. The menu of the day was a polenta, which is a typical dish from the Ticino, made out of corn and has got a long tradition. It was for centuries belonging to one of the basic food for most of the population (POLENTA). They enjoyed the meal together with a large glass of fresh tap water from the "San Gottardo" source.
Full and satisfied everyone headed to his room for an early night sleep. Before going to bed, Daniela arranged with the reception to have breakfast ready at 6 o'clock and requested them to send their luggage to Bellinzona. Ueli was the only one who stayed up longer as he wanted to repair the hiking boot of Nicolas and make him a surprise. He was a passionate handyman and always carried his power glue.