Una passeggiata in Svizzera: Val Poschiavo

The lowered car windows, the warm summer wind caressing the face, the sparkling air, the scent of nature that gently nods in the nose and in the distance the whistle of the Bernina Red Train, directed to St. Moritz, which is approaching fast.

I had never been to Switzerland before last summer, but that's how I always imagined it, as in Heidi's cardboard: green lounges with grazing cows, wooden houses, colored geraniums at the windows, majestic lakes, pine forests and paths to discover.

I always preferred the sea to the mountain but I was literally fascinated.

Snow-covered mountains, pristine natural areas, cities and small overflowing cultural landscapes make Switzerland an ideal holiday destination.

A varied landscape of valleys and picturesque cities, especially the Graubünden region, Switzerland's largest canton, the most eastern and the only trilingual. Here everything is different, even the chromatic: red like the Rhaetian railway wagons, yellow like the post bus, blue like the 615 lakes and the sky over the 150 valleys, green like the forests and pastures, golden brown like larches in the fall, gray like fortresses and rocks, and white like snow and glaciers.

And it is in the Canton of Graubünden, in Val Poschiavo, where my trip to Switzerland started.

The natural and cultural landscape of Val Poschiavo is only 25 kilometers from the sparkling Bernina chain to Veltlin vineyards but offers a multitude of natural beauty, beautiful towns with interesting cultural monuments, palaces and churches.

On board the "Red Train" or the "Bernina Express", with the red caravan compositions of the Rhaetian railway, or by car: the route from the Engadine to Val Poschiavo, the southernmost of the 150 valleys of the Graubünden, offers up to the borders with Italy one of Switzerland's most varied landscapes.

The train path on the Bernina Pass from St. Moritz to Val Poschiavo and to Tirano, the Italian border, is an impressive experience. Here the gaze spans the mountain panorama of the Morteratsch glacier, the Diavolezza or the Lagalb glacier. From the Alp Grum you can see the imposing Palu glacier and at the same time the majestic Lake Poschiavo with its cobalt blue waters, a spectacle of nature.

The chief town of the small, unspoiled resort of Val Poschiavo is the town of Poschiavo, whose patrician houses surround the square, giving it a typically Italian character. Poschiavo, in fact, has its charm in the seductive old town, rich in magnificent palaces and vaguely medieval architecture.

And I still remember it, the astonishment on my face and the astonished eyes in front of the beauty of this nature.

Villa d'Amelia: un soggiorno romantico nel cuore delle Langhe

Imagine wearing a skirt in the '50 mood, climbing on a red Vespa with your Love and going down the countryside in the rolling hills of Piedmont, just like in a movie. The wind in the hair, the smiles in the mirrors, the scent of the summer and the desire to spend a romantic and relaxed weekend in a unique landscape: the Langhe.

An incomparable corner of Italy that contains unrivaled excellence, often just whispered in the ear as secrets from gourmet of middle world. Here Nebbiolo reigns, with its noble sons - the Barolo and the Barbaresco - protected by castles, towers and fortified villages that bring us back to the middle ages of struggles and splendor. And beneath these hills so special, the last and most secret treasure: the White Truffle of Alba.

The Savoy Piedmont of royal palces and courts, of palaces and gardens preserves its ancient, wild and original soul in the Langhe and the Monferrato, among oak groves and scented rituans, between hazelnuts and pastures, in stone villages and rustic churches. A soul of ancestral beauty that is mirrored on the snowy chain of the Alps to protect it and refreshed by the marin, the wind of the sea that warms and smells, giving that microclimate so special to its inimitable wines.