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| Alpine village of Saas Fee |
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| Alpine village of Zermatt |
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| Lakeside town of Bellagio of Lake Como |
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| Riomaggiore village of Cinque Terre |
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| Milan Cathedral |
This blog is a write up about our recent summer holiday to the Swiss village of Saas-Fee and Zermatt, and to the Italian lakeside area of Lake Como, the Italian Riveria at the southern coast of Liguria, and ending its all with a short touring around the Milan city. It all started after deciding to visit the UNESCO site of Cinque Terre and landing in Milan was the nearest international airport. But since Milan is so near the Swiss border where the mountains of Saas-Fee and Zermatt stand, we decided to bundle them up for our 2 weeks of holidaying around the region. Being an enthusiast for mountain hiking, no holiday is complete with climbing some mountains and getting close to nature.
The following is the route of our holiday plan for anyone who enjoy the same interest for mountains, lakes and the sea for their reference.
8 ~ 21 September, 2018
Day 1: Lands at Malpensa Airport, Milan. Travel by bus, train and bus to Sass-Fee.
Day 2: Explore around Saas-Fee, Saas Gund, Mattmark Lake
Day 3: Climb the Allalinhorn, Saas Fee
Day 4: Travel to Zermatt
Day 5: Day hike to Hornli Hut, Matterhorn
Day 6: Travel from Zermatt to Lake Como
Day 7: Tour around Lake Como
Day 8: Travel to Cinque Terre, visit Monterosso
Day 9: Visit 2 of the 5 town of Cinque Terre, Corniglia and Vernazza
Day 10: Visit Porta Vernere and Manarola
Day 11: Explore around Riomaggiore
Day 12: Travel back to Milan
Day 13: Tour within Milan city
Day 14: Catch the flight home.
The above travellings are within the same region and at most take about 7 hrs of travelling time. Start in the morning and ends around mid afternoon.
Day 1. Getting to Saas Fee
After a long flight from Singapore to Milan, transiting over in Dubai, we took the fastest way to get to SaaS Fee in Switzerland from the Malpensa Airport. Saas Fee is an alpine village just next to the famous village of Zermatt. From the airport we took a
bus to Domodosola Station, a border town between Italy and Swiss, followed by a
short train ride across the border to the Swiss town of Brig, and finally the bus ride into Saas Fee.
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| At the Domodossola station |
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| Just outside the Domodossola train station (main street) |
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| Our travelling bags. Everything is inside |
When we reached Brig, we did some walking with our big backpacks near the train station for lunch and ended at the big open space of the town square which offers a beautiful view of the Swiss style buildings with restaurants at the ground floor. We got ourselves into a restaurant for our 1st meal in Switzerland. After lunch we took the 1.5hr bus ride from Brig to Saas Fee via Visp.
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| Bright and colourful fountain |
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| Our lunch view |
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| A nice cold beer to welcome our arrival to Switzerland |
Once we reached the bus terminal of Saas-fee, it took us some heavy walking with our heavy backpacks to reach our hotel which was located at the end of the town. It was worth the walk as our hotel has an unblocked view of the snow capped mountain and our rooms has a balcony just for us to enjoy that view. We stayed at the Hotel Bristol at Saas Fee. It is located at the end of the town near the sports field. There are some steep streets around the main shopping, food and commercial area. It can get quite sweaty on a warm day walking the street carry big packs. Didn't see anyone carry big backpacks like us during this time of the season. there are mini taxi vans that can ferry guests to their hotel for a fee. For us we prefer to spend that 15 CHF on some ice cold beers.
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| How to get around in Saas Fee |
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| Love the look. Flowers and cottage style shops |
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| Our hotel of 3 nights at |
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| Our room balcony view of the snow capped mountain peaks |
Something about Saas Fee
Saas Fee is an
alpine ski town and a hiking haven for outdoor enthusiasts. Located at an elevation of 1800m and just besides
the more touristy and famous Matterhorn town of Zermatt. Saas Fee does not have
train access like Zermatt but buses that runs from the main train stations
like Brig and Visp which are connected to the rest of the country train network
ad well as to cities within the regional. The village is not very huge in area but has enough walking distance from one end to the other. We didn't go all the way as the other end gets more residential, while our hotel is at the other end near the sports field and the cablecar station.
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| On one of the main street of Saas Fee |
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| The old old houses, now maybe for display purposes (near the bus terminal) |
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| Everywhere has beautiful flowers. |
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| Of hotels and restaurants |
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| On one of the main streets |
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| The village church. |
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| The quieter side of the village |
Saas Fee is a
similar car free town like Zermatt, less touristy but more localized for the
European folks who like to come here for winter sports and summer hikes. Lots
of accommodation and restaurants to choose from. During our stay of 3 nights at Saas
Fee, we came across less than 5 Asians tourists but we dint feel being
alienated. All is well. Accommodation was good, shops are within walking
distance. Just be prepared if you need to carry heavy luggage and your hotel is
far away from the only bus terminal. There are mini electric van that are so
called taxis to save tourists from the long walk to their hotel.
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| Taxi for hire (near the bus terminal at Saas Fee. |
Day 2. Exploring Around Saas Fee
Today we spent the day with the morning doing a short hike near the village of Saas Grund, and followed by an unplanned visit to the alpine lake of Mattmark.
Please use the link below to read on the short hike around the top of the cable car station at Hohsaas near Saas Grund.
Hohsaas, Saas Grund
Mattmarksee
Back at the cable car station at Saas Grund village,while checking the bus schedule for the bus stop at the cable car station, a bus pulled up and stop at the bus stop as that is the terminal station for the bus. Since the bus LED display shows it would pass by Saas Almagell, we boarded bus and waited for it to start it run again. The bus did pass through the village but we kept looking at the LCD display board to see which bus stop has the gondola symbol for us to alight. It was after we checked the map closely that we say the cable car station is on another part of the village that is not part of the main bus route. When we found that out we were already out of the village on some route with no civilization in sight. It was all just grassland and mountains and so we just carried on with the rest of the passengers on the bus and see what was installed for us at the end.
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| Mattmark reservoir (2200m) |
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| Restaurant at Mattmark with the terminal bus stop below |
We arrived at the alpine reservoir and dam of Mattmark at 2200m, called Mattmarksee. The bus stop at the terminal stop that is located next to a restaurant just at one end of the man-made wall of a dam. When the bus was approaching the place, from far we could see a straight line of that of a mountain wall. In fact as we got closer it was not the face of a mountain, but the slope walls of a man-made dam that was made from stone and soil. The dam is huge and long stretching maybe a few hundred meters.When we alighted from the bus we could only see the restaurant, the road which the bus came from a this long natural look mountain wall that blocked all views behind it, but we saw people walking above. It was only after we climbed up the stairs at the side to realize that it was the structure of a water holding dam, and this place was the well known Mattmarksee. That explained why a bus would come all the way here out of the village.
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| The Post-Auto bus that we took to reach here from Saas Grund |
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| Walking along the long dam structure |
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| Another view of the bus stop and car park area (pic taken from the dam) |
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| The road cutting thru the valley to Saas Almagell to civilization |
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| View of the start point at the far end where the bus stop is |
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| Long trail of waterfalls |
The reservoir water catchment area was huge as it stretches all the way to the other side where the water from the melting glacier flow down and collected at this reservoir. There are wide trails at the sides that can allow a hiker o do a round loop hike around the reservoir. On some information i read it says an estimate of 2.5 hrs is all it takes to do a round loop hike. It was around 3pm when we were there at the area and we wouldn't to be stuck at this place without any buses to get us back to Saas Fee, so we just stick to just enjoying the windy and sunny walk along the long stretch of the dam's structure.
If one were to google on the web, the Mattmark reservoir has a sad past back in 1965 when a big chunk of the Allalin glacier collapsed into the reservoir when it was undergoing construction and 88 workers lost their lives either buried or wash away by the glacier. The dam was used and is used to provide hydroelectric power to the households.
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| Me with background of the Mattmarksee |
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| A short walk towards the waterfall area near the bus stop near |
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| Closer view of the long waterfall trails |
We explore the area just near the bus stop and caught the 4:20pm ( i think) bus back to Saas Grund before changing for the bus back to Saas Fee. Saas Grund is the village that seems to be the bus changing location for people either wanting to go to Saas Fee or back to Visp or Brig. The bus schedule at Mattmark when we checked was on an hourly basis for a Sunday. Maybe on weekdays it could be longer.
Dinner was settled back at the restaurant just opposite our hotel. Food was great and we got to have a table on the outside having great views of the mountains. Just that it got a little chilly when the sun set. Luckily our hotel was just across the street. With that, our day 2 of hiking adventure ended.
Day 3: Climbing Allalinhorn, 4027m
Today, we challenged ourselves to climb one of the snow capped mountain peak at Saas Fee. We signed up with the village's guiding company called the Saas Fee Guides for the morning climb to the summit of one of the facinating mountain summits around the Saas Fee area. This climb was the highlight of our summer holidaying in Switzerland. An original plan to just visit the village of Saas Fee, but ended up reading on this snow peak that was rated as easy and suitable for beginners to snow and ice hiking. It was many years since our last snow climb on the highest peak in Norway, the Gladhoepiggen at 2469m. Even if it isn't that high, the weather which we climbed back then was almost in a mild blizzard. So it was good to be able to relive the experience of snow climbing after so long.
To read on the Allalinhorn climb, please follow the photo link below.
Day 4: A Mix of Saas Fee and Zermatt
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| Another fine weather day to go out |
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| Taking the cable car from Saas Fee to Spielboden station |
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| Moving up above the treeline |
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| Welcome to Spiellboden station |
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| Mountain restaurant just besides the Spielboden cable car station |
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| Me enjoying the morning mountain view |
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| Hiking trail from Spielboden down all the way to Saas Fee and the station below |
Today was the day
we check-out from our hotel at Saas Fee and moved over to Zermatt which another
alpine village just next to Saas Fee, separate a mountain range. For the
remaining morning at Saas Fee, we took the cable car up to Spielboden station
(2450m), the place well know of wild marmots roaming the hill sides savaging
food and waiting for visitors to spare them some food. I had my doubts on the
probability of spotting and thought it was just marketing gimmick, but once I
was there, all my doubts disappeared. It was what it was written on the tourism
website on these marmots. Regrettable we did not bring along those food that
was mentioned on the website that these little friendly creatures loved. But we had our enjoyable time just sitting
along the trail near the cable car station and watching the marmot roamed around
and at times came to us for what food that we can feed them. Their movement is
so quiet and one or 2 just came and sneaked up behind me and was standing on
the slope land besides me. We manged to stroke the fur of these creatures as
they were nibbling on the dry biscuits we had for them. After some time, they
lost interest and just walked away.
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| At the area just besides the marmot roaming area |
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| Marmot approaching us for food |
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| The Marmot Family |
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| One just sneak up behind me |
These marmots can be found around the cable car station. On the slopes around the station. There is a restaurant that offered a beautiful view of the mountains and the valley of Saas Fee below the station. From here, we could see the Mt Allalinhorn and the ski field below it, which was closed for today, even though we just climb the mountain the day before. Maybe the snow field operates on selected days only when it is off peak. So if you want more time and let the marmot crowd around you, maybe can follow the advice on the Saas Fee website for the food stuff that these little creatures. They did mention carrots.
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| Gondola coming down to bring us up to Langfluh |
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| Langfluh station |
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| Langfluh at 2870m |
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| View of the massive Feegletscher (Fee Glacier) |
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| View of the Saas Fee Village below and the mountains above it |
After spending enough time here, we continued on the cable car ride from the same station up higher to the last station of Langfluh at 2870m using our Citizen Pass that allow free travel on these cable cars. Today seemed to be a off day and there were no skiers, just tourist like us coming up here to see what the place has to offer. The view was scenic as it offered view of the glaciers formation of both sides. The Langfluh station is located on a stretch of the mountain edge that divides the glacier into 2 downward paths. From this vantage location, we could see the snow field and ski area of Allalin and the Allalinhorn even closer.
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| Peace and quiet ( only a handful of morning folks here) |
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| At the open deck area of the restaurant, comfy cushions! |
Without the crowd of skiers and climbers, the entire mountain opposite us looked tranquil and peaceful. ON a busy climb day, from this location one could see brightly coloured climbers making their snaking way up to the peak. There is stone build restaurant at the LangFluh area, just a few hundred meter away from the station, but today was a day I guess operation ceased for the day. Everything was closed except the cable car that brought tourists up here to enjoy the snow view of the mountain.
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| Closer view of the Feegletscher. |
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| Me and the Glacier |
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| The Allalinhorn (view from Langfluh) |
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| Zoom view of the Allalinhorn, no climbers today |
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| Just sitting and enjoying the view with some snacks |
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| Another group of casual hikers |
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| Me with the Langfluh station at the back |
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| Wifey with the behind path to the summit of Alphubel (4206m)(climbable) |
Nothing much to explore and we had our share of enough snow and ice, and so we just find a comfy spot to sit on flat rocks and got ourselves mesmerized by the awesome view of the glacier ice chunks and the opposite snow mountain range.
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| Heading back to the station to return to Saas fee |
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| Bright and sunny at Saas Fee |
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| Lunch time |
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| Again fried food, but nice |
About an hour of relaxing, we took the cable car down back to the village to have out lunch before making our way to our next destination, the tourist town of Zermatt. Lunch was back to the same place we had for dinner. Didn’t want to walk too far away to look for lunch, knowing that we had to go back to our hotel to pick up our heavy bags before heading to Zermatt.When we were back at the hotel to pick up our bags, the hotel staff noticed our big haversacks and offered to give us a lift to the bus terminal. All cheers to them.
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| At the Saas Fee Bus Terminal |
At the bus terminal, originally we just wanted to purchase the bus tickets to bring us to Stalden station so that we could change to the train that goes to Zermatt, without having to go all the way to Visp or Brig. Stalden is the nearest station away from Saas Fee that one can take to get to Zermatt by train.At the Saas Fee bus terminal, I showed the ticketing staff my google map plan and he saw my destination as Zermatt and told me that I could pay for the fare to get to Zermatt. IT seemed the transport service in the area was all integrated. Paying a single charge at the bus terminal would include the charge for the train ride from Stalden to Zermatt. And so we did. We took the next bus going to Visp and Brig and dropped off at Stalden. We were the only ones on the bus that alighted at Stalden train station.
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| Only us waiting at the deserted train station. |
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| The train station of Stalden that doesn't look like a station. Shops and restaurant |
The station was quite empty except 2 couple waiting for the train. IT seemed to me like a quite town. There was an Italian restaurant just besides the train track. It is actually the station building itself. The building from the outside doesn’t look like a train station but more of just a commercial building that housed a restaurant, a hair stylist shop and some office space area.
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| The Zermatt Bahnhoff (Zermatt Railway Station) |
The train came on time and we just boarded it for the ride to Zermatt. It was another 50mins on the train that climbed deeper into the valley to reach the town of Zermatt. Once we reached the town and came out of the station, dejavu sets in as it reminded us of the last time we were at Zermatt about 12 years ago.
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| Zermatt village main shopping street near train station |
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| Restaurants and hotels lined the main shopping street |
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| The big expensive hotel along the main street with the church |
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| The quiter side of Zermatt, the only canal that cuts across the village |
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| The church at the main street of Zermatt |
Except for the train station, everything looks different. The shops, the building facade. But the crowd is always there. Suddenly we felt we were no longer in the mountain area and back in some cities. Even though cars are not allowed, many electric vehicle ply the streets, ferrying luggage and goods from point to point. And human traffic around the station was quite congested. It was just a weekday only but activities around the train station didn’t seem to reflect that.Both Saas Fee and Zermatt are alpine villages located in valleys separated by a mountain range, but the mood and crowd characteristics are totally different. You see a lot more of tour groups, people from Asian countries seem to be everywhere. You can find all nationalities of the world maybe here in Zermatt. Shops everywhere, sports good shop, pharmacies, restaurants, cafes, gift shops, big hotels. The commercialism sets in deep here at Zermatt. The town has grown from the last time we visited. More and more residential buildings were built and still building, stretching further deep into the valley. The only thing we could recognize was the same canal that cuts across the down from the upper slopes down.
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| Me at the main street. |
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| Walking to our hotel, Hotel Ambience |
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| Crossing the tram tracks that goes up to Gornergrat |
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| Hotel Ambience (front view) |
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| Hotel Ambience (back view, our room windows) |
It was around 4 pm that we check into our hotel, Hotel Ambience., located in a quiet street away from the hustle and bustle of tourism. The hotel was good, food, rooms, service, except it is requires some leg power as it is away from the main shopping street, cross the canal and up a sloped path to get there. Even with the “shortest” path that we found out later, carry heavy bags to and from the train station can be demanding for some. Well if one is willing to part with some money, there is the comfortable option of taxi in Zermatt. But we preferred to use that money for a meal. Prices in Zermatt, being a tourist town, is much more expensive than Saas Fee. But those choices are more and you get to find Asian food like Japanese and Thai food which we settled for it for one of the dinner nights.After check in, we explore the shopping streets of Zermatt, visited shops, checking out the sporting gear and their prices. They didn’t come cheap even for items that were made in Europe even so. Initially I thought I could stock up some items on this trip and realized I better stick to my purchase from USA online.
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| Our dinner menu at Zermatt |
Dinner was at an Italian restaurant that has an open air sitting area. Food was average but price was on the higher side for simple pasta meal. Well this is Zermatt and things wouldn’t be cheap looking at the loads of tourist visiting the town. As the night settled in, the street became quieter and walking around without the crowds seamed to be quite an enjoyable post dinner experience. The coldness was coming in as well and we didn’t stay too long as shops were closed and even the supermarket closed at 8pm leaving visitors staying overnight at Zermatt without nothing much to do except going back to their hotels and rest for the night.
Day 5: Day Hike to Hornli Hut, Matterhorn
This was the day the reason why we came to Zermatt, to do the climb to Hornli Hut. the so called the base camp for the Matterhorn climb. Even though we are not doing the climb, it is as close we could get being near it. 12 years ago wanted to do the same thing, but wasn't an experienced hiker back then and lack the knowledge of mountain trekking. Please follow the photo link above on the details of the climb.
Day 6: Leaving Switzerland, Going Italy
After a good night rest for the climbing activities we had the previous days, it was a quick breakfast for us at Zermatt before catching the 8:45am train leaving for Brig and from there to catch the intercity train from Brig to Milano Centrale. It took about 2 hours from Brig to get to Milano Centrale. A short snack break as lunch within the big train station terminal, and from there we took the regional train from there to Varenna-Esino station. This is the train station for visitors wanting to visit the 3 famous town of Lake Como, Bellagio, Menaggiore and Varenna itself where the train station is. It takes about an hour 40 mins to get from Milano Centrale to Varenna.
This is the fastest way to get from the Swiss town of Brig to Lake Como. No point changing to other smaller town train station to swap trains here and there. With the final 20 mins of ferry ride, we reached the lakeside town of Bellagio which began our 2 days and 2 night at Lake Como, Italy.
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| On the train leaving Zermatt for Brig |
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| Arrived at the Varenna-Esino station |
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| Making our way to the Ferry Boat pier |
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| Queuing for ferry boat tickets (you can buy those day passes for unlimited rides) |
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| At the Varenna ferry boat pier (before boarding) |
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| View of Varenna (pic taken on the ferry heading to Bellagio) |
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| Arrived at Bellagio pier. |
Day 7: Lake Como
For details on the write up on the 3 lakeside village of Lake Como, please follow the photo link below.
Day 8 ~ 11: Starting our 4 Day Visit to Cinque Terre
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| Bags on the move again (leaving Bellagio) |
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| Waiting for the cars to board first. |
Today we bid farewell to the lakeside towns of Lake Como and begin our journey to the Liguria coast of the UNESCO site of Cinque Terre, in Italian it translate to 5 Towns. From Bellagio, we took the same route by ferry to Varenna to catch the regional train back to Milano Centrale for another regional train to one of the 5 towns of Riomaggiore via Genoa. All in all took about 3 to 4 hours to reach there.
For details on the write up on the 3 lakeside village of Lake Como, please follow the photo link below.
Day 12 ~ 14: Exploring Milan
By that time, it was almost mid noon and all the branded goods shops would already been open. The next famous building at the Duomo Square is the sheltered shopping square, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The shops there are no different from those that lined the street of branded goods near Montenapoleone, just that this mall has a covered glass pane structure covering the 4 sides of the mall. The floor space of this mall was made of marble stone and coupled with the high sheltered structure made the whole place grand and worth the visit. Other than the way the mall is build and operating, it was quite a short moment before we left the place. There were some modern shopping malls next to this Galleria and so we spend the next hour walking around the area. And over time the Domo Square in front of the Cathedral was filling up with tourists and almost occupied the entire square. And of course the scammers doing usual days work at the square. Friendship bands, bird seeds, free flowers, those that are common in Italian big cities, you can see it here. No cause to be alarm, just give a polite no and walk away and all is well and safe. Not different from any major European cities, where there are tourists and when there is crowded, petty crimes will occur.
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| Now it looks more like a tourist place at Duomo Sqaure |
From the castle we exited from the rear gate that led to a big park called Parco Sempione. The park seemed safe and peaceful that we decided to walk across it to the monumental gate structure at the other side of the park, called the Arco della Pace that dated back to the 19th century. The arch sits at location called the Porta Sempione, which means the Sempione Gate, and it was the gate to the district zone within that area of Milan.
From there, we looked for the nearest metro station to bring us back to Montenapoleon to do some final branded goods window shopping. We walked to the Gerusalemme station to take the train and a nice couple shared with us inside the train platform that the train has some technical fault and the line to where we want to get to was not accessible. We followed their advice to take the train to the next station where there was bus shuttle service to bring us to the station that has operating train lines. When we came out of the metro we didn’t know where to go, maybe to walk all the way to another metro line but then we spotted a bus with the M5 (the metro line that was faulty) and boarded. The transport folks don’t speak much English and after being in Italy for so many days, we know it will be futile to converse with them. We took the free shuttle bus and reached the other operating train line to continue our journey to Montenapoleon.
Montenapoleon is the place where all the high end branded goods shops are located, and along the narrow streets you can see expensive cars and chauffeur driven cars to bring their guest to do their expensive shopping. There are police officers almost at every corner of the street, not far from any action should it happen. There are tourist vans as well for those on some branded goods buying tour that ferries them from shops to shops. At a small corner, one can see the deep contrast between the rich and the poor. There are still beggars on the street at corners asking for money, but the filthy rich would come out with many bags of branded goods, the amount easily something the poor would have never able to have. Such is the world of commercialism.
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| At the street of Montenapolean |
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| All the branded goods all congregated at this Montenapolean area |
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| Status of Leonardo near Duomo Sqaure |
It was a long day of walking around, getting a little out of place when the train line breaks down ( of course last resort of taxi is always the way to get back), getting to crowded places, the Domo square again after from Montenapoleon which is a short walk away. The walking always bring us back to the Duomo Square. Maybe this is the only place that worth visiting and the place whee all tourists will congregate and much to see. We took the metro from Duomo station again to head back to our hotel area for a last lunch before the flight in the evening. We took the regional train from Milano Centrale station to the Malepensa airport for the return flight home.
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| Last move for our bags, HOME |
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| Last shot of the Milano Centrale Train station before heading to the airport |
Additional Links to Related Posts:
Travelling Around Italy by Train.
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