In July I will be staying in Bellagio with a friend who can’t be gone long, like I can. She would like to take a scenic train ride through Switzerland and I am trying to figure out how to make it work.
Although ferry schedules aren’t out yet for our July dates, I see a current 8:05 traghetto ferry Bellagio to Varenna (weekday schedule and our date will be a Friday). Then it looks like I see a 9:25-10:52 train Varenna Esino to Tirano, followed by an 11:00-14:41 train Tirano to Thusis.
Since scenery is the only point, we’d just reverse from Thusis beginning at 15:29 - 19:00 back to Tirano, and 19:08 - 20:34 Tirano to Varenna Esino. Then there looks to be ferries later than this.
First, am I reading schedules correctly? I wasn’t sure about the arrival time of the morning ferry, although the schedule appears to say it takes @ 15 minutes.
Second, aside from slightly crazy, does the rest look doable and correct, based on current schedules?
Third, if I am going to put in the effort to make this trip, I do want to go over/see the Landwasser Viaduct - I think that means I would have to go further than Sankt Moritz or Pontresina. But I don’t need to go all the way to Chur. Stopping in Thusis looks like it would get us over the Viaduct and then give us time to walk around a bit. Is there anything I need to be careful of to make sure we get there?
I am also not interested in the actual Bernina Express unless it just turns out it is the best fit.
None of my trains above are the last scheduled, in case one is late and everything gets behind.
It feels like it might be falling together so well that it makes me nervous I have misread or missed something.
At this point I have a reservation in Varenna for Friday night, as well as our original one in Bellagio. I will cancel one soon, probably Bellagio. So I am concerned with morning ferry times - but not really evening ferry times.
I already have our Saver Day passes for Switzerland.
Practical thoughts?