Centovalli Express -- Audio Guide

TL;DR: A 2-hour audio companion for the Centovalli Express from Locarno to Domodossola, Italy, through the "Hundred Valleys" -- one of the wildest and least-known scenic railway journeys in Switzerland. Cross dizzying bridges over jungle-like gorges, pass through chestnut forests and stone-built villages, and travel from Swiss Ticino into Italian Piedmont on a narrow-gauge railway that feels like an adventure into forgotten territory.

Journey Overview

Introduction

[Duration: 3 minutes | Departing Locarno]

Welcome aboard the Centovalli Express, and welcome to this ch.tours audio guide for the journey through the Hundred Valleys -- the Centovalli -- from Locarno in Swiss Ticino to Domodossola in Italian Piedmont.

This is not one of Switzerland's famous scenic trains. There are no panoramic windows, no restaurant cars, no seat reservations, no marketing campaigns. The Centovalli Express runs on a narrow-gauge line built between 1913 and 1923, using modest coaches that rattle and sway through some of the most dramatic scenery accessible by rail in the southern Alps. And that is precisely its charm.

The Centovalli -- the Hundred Valleys -- takes its name from the innumerable side valleys, gorges, and ravines that branch off the main Melezza River valley between Locarno and the Italian border. The railway crosses 83 bridges and passes through 34 tunnels in just 52 kilometers, clinging to mountainsides, spanning gorges that drop hundreds of meters to the river below, and threading through villages so small they appear to be made of the same stone as the mountain.

This is wild Ticino -- not the manicured promenades of Lugano or the palm-lined lakeshore of Ascona, but a landscape of dense chestnut forests, rushing torrents, abandoned stone terraces, and communities that have clung to these slopes for centuries. The Centovalli is one of the last places in Switzerland where you can feel genuinely remote, where the mountains press close and the valleys are too narrow and too steep for anything but a goat and a train.

The Centovalli Express departs from the FART station in Locarno -- a separate station from the SBB station, located just across the street. The train is leaving. Look out both windows. It starts immediately.

Segment 1: Locarno to Ponte Brolla

[Duration: 6 minutes | 0-10 minutes into the journey]

The train leaves Locarno and crosses the Maggia delta -- the flat alluvial plain at the head of Lake Maggiore. The landscape here is suburban, with residential areas and light industry lining the tracks. But within minutes, the flat delta gives way to the mouth of the Centovalli, and the scenery transforms.

At Ponte Brolla, the valley of the Melezza River opens on the right, and the train turns west into it. Ponte Brolla is a well-known climbing area -- the granite gorge below the bridge is one of the most popular sport climbing sites in Ticino, and on warm days you may see climbers on the rock faces.

The Maggia River, flowing down from the Maggia Valley to the north, is visible on the left before the train turns into the Centovalli. The Maggia is famous for its crystal-clear emerald pools and smooth granite slabs, and the river swimming in the Maggia Valley is some of the finest in Switzerland.

As the train enters the Centovalli proper, the character of the journey asserts itself immediately. The valley is narrow, steep, and densely forested. The Melezza River tumbles through a gorge far below, barely visible through the canopy. Chestnut trees -- enormous, ancient, moss-covered -- line the slopes, and stone walls mark the remnants of agricultural terraces that once sustained the valley's communities.

Segment 2: Intragna and the Gorge

[Duration: 10 minutes | 10-30 minutes into the journey]

The first significant village is Intragna, identifiable by its church tower -- at 65 meters, it is the tallest church tower in Ticino. The village clings to a promontory above the confluence of the Melezza and Isorno rivers, and the setting is spectacularly vertical.

Intragna also has a small regional museum (the Museo Regionale delle Centovalli e del Pedemonte) that documents the traditional life of the valley -- the chestnut economy, the seasonal migration of workers, and the hardships of mountain farming. The chestnut was historically the staple food of the Centovalli, and chestnut groves were carefully managed as a food source for centuries. The trees you see along the valley are not wild forest -- they are the remnants of an agricultural system, each tree once individually tended, its fruit harvested and dried for flour, eaten whole, or fed to livestock.

After Intragna, the railway enters the most dramatic section of the Swiss portion. The train crosses the Isorno River on a slender bridge, with a gorge dropping away below on the right side to a depth that makes you grip your armrest. The bridges on the Centovalli line are not grand viaducts like the Landwasser -- they are narrow, functional structures that simply get the train from one side of a ravine to the other, often at alarming height. The views downward into the gorges are vertiginous and thrilling.

The forest presses close on both sides. In autumn, the chestnut trees turn gold and bronze, and the larches on the higher slopes blaze orange against the dark conifers. The Centovalli in October is one of the most visually stunning landscapes in the southern Alps.

Segment 3: Verdasio and the High Valley

[Duration: 8 minutes | 30-50 minutes into the journey]

At Verdasio, a cable car connects the valley floor to the tiny village of Rasa -- one of the most remote permanently inhabited settlements in Ticino, accessible only by cable car or trail. Rasa has a population of fewer than 20 permanent residents and sits on a shelf of land high above the valley, surrounded by forest and mountain. If you want to experience true Swiss-Italian mountain isolation, this is the place.

The railway continues westward, and the villages it passes through -- Palagnedra, Borgnone, Corcapolo -- are increasingly small and stone-built. Many of the houses in these villages date to the 17th and 18th centuries, built from the granite of the valley walls, with slate roofs and thick walls designed to endure the mountain climate. Stone arches, vaulted cellars, and narrow passages between buildings give the villages a medieval character.

Notice the terracing on the mountainsides. Where the forest has not reclaimed them, you can see stone-walled terraces climbing the slopes -- the remnants of centuries of labor. These terraces supported small fields, vineyards, and the chestnut groves that were the economic foundation of valley life. Many have been abandoned since the mid-20th century, as young people left for the cities, and the forest is slowly reclaiming them. The Centovalli is a landscape shaped by both human effort and human departure.

On the right side, the gorge of the Melezza is now deeply incised -- the river flows in a narrow slot carved through the bedrock, barely visible from the train. Waterfalls cascade down the cliff faces, especially after rain, and the sound of moving water is a constant accompaniment.

Segment 4: Camedo -- The Border

[Duration: 6 minutes | 50-60 minutes into the journey]

The village of Camedo marks the Swiss-Italian border. The border crossing on the Centovalli line is one of the most low-key international transitions you will experience -- the train pauses briefly at the station, and that is it. No passport control (this is a Schengen zone crossing), no announcement, no fanfare. One moment you are in Switzerland; the next you are in Italy.

Camedo is the last Swiss village in the Centovalli, and it has a population of fewer than 200. The old customs buildings at the station are a reminder of the days when the border mattered more. Historically, the Centovalli was a smuggling corridor, just as the Lake Lugano shore was near Gandria. The goods were different -- tobacco, rice, sugar, and sometimes people -- but the motivation was the same: the border created a price differential, and human ingenuity found a way across.

As the train enters Italy, the valley's name changes. On the Swiss side, it is the Centovalli. On the Italian side, it becomes the Val Vigezzo -- the Valley of the Painters. The Val Vigezzo earned this name because it produced an unusual number of artists, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, many of whom worked as itinerant painters and chimney sweeps across Europe. The School of Fine Arts in Santa Maria Maggiore preserves this artistic heritage.

Segment 5: Val Vigezzo -- The Italian Side

[Duration: 10 minutes | 60-90 minutes into the journey]

The Val Vigezzo has a different character from the Centovalli. It is broader, sunnier, and more gently sloped. The villages are larger and more prosperous-looking, with frescoed facades and baroque church interiors that reflect the wealth brought back by emigrants.

The first Italian town of note is Re, famous for its Santuario della Madonna del Sangue (Sanctuary of the Madonna of the Blood), a massive pilgrimage church that dominates the small town. The church was built following a reported miracle in 1480, when a fresco of the Madonna reportedly began bleeding after being struck by a stone. The current basilica, rebuilt in the 19th and early 20th centuries, is a disproportionately grand building for such a small community, a testament to the devotion of pilgrims over the centuries.

Santa Maria Maggiore is the main town of the Val Vigezzo, with a population of about 1,200. The town has an attractive arcaded center, several churches with notable frescoes, and the School of Fine Arts (Scuola di Belle Arti Rossetti Valentini), founded in 1868. The Chimney Sweep Museum (Museo dello Spazzacamino) documents the peculiar tradition of Val Vigezzo families who sent their children -- some as young as six -- to work as chimney sweeps in the cities of northern Italy, Switzerland, and beyond. This grim chapter of child labor is remembered with an annual Chimney Sweep Festival each September that draws chimney sweeps from across Europe.

The valley broadens further as the train approaches Domodossola, and glimpses of the main Alpine chain appear to the north -- the Simplon range, connecting to the route between Brig and Italy.

Segment 6: Arrival in Domodossola

[Duration: 6 minutes | 90-115 minutes into the journey]

Domodossola is a small Italian city of about 18,000 at the southern end of the Simplon Pass route, in the Piedmont region. The city sits in the broad Toce valley, surrounded by mountains, and has been a transportation hub since the Romans built roads through the Alps.

The train arrives at the SSIF station in Domodossola, adjacent to the main Trenitalia station. From Domodossola, you can catch Italian trains south to Milan (about 1.5 hours) or Swiss trains north through the Simplon Tunnel to Brig and the Rhone Valley (about 25 minutes).

Domodossola's Saturday market is one of the best in the region -- a lively affair spreading through the arcaded streets of the old center, selling local cheeses, salami, wines from the Ossola valley, and fresh produce. The old town, with its arcaded Piazza del Mercato and medieval streets, is worth a stroll if you have time between connections.

The city's name is believed to derive from the Latin "Domus Oscellae," and the Piazza della Liberazione commemorates the Domodossola Republic -- a brief partisan government established for 33 days in September-October 1944 during the Italian resistance to Nazi occupation.

Domodossola is also a gateway to one of the great Alpine tunnels. The Simplon Tunnel, 19.8 kilometers long, connects Domodossola to Brig in the Swiss canton of Valais. When it opened in 1906, it was the longest railway tunnel in the world, and it remains one of the most important rail links between Switzerland and Italy. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the legendary luxury train, passes through Domodossola on its route between London and Venice, adding a touch of romance to this Alpine railway junction.

The food of the Ossola valley is hearty and distinctive: polenta served with cheese and local salumi, river trout, alpine herbs, and wines from the small Ossola vineyards. The local Prunent grape, nearly extinct in the mid-20th century, has been revived by a handful of dedicated winemakers and produces a deep-colored, rustic red wine that pairs perfectly with the robust mountain cuisine.

Closing

[Duration: 3 minutes]

Your Centovalli Express journey is complete. In two hours, you have crossed from Swiss Ticino to Italian Piedmont through one of the most dramatic and least-touristed railway corridors in the Alps.

The Centovalli does not have the name recognition of the Glacier Express or the Bernina Express. It does not appear in most tourist itineraries. But for those who discover it, it offers something that the famous scenic trains cannot: a sense of wildness, of being in territory that has not been smoothed and packaged for consumption. The gorges are real, the villages are authentic, the chestnut forests are ancient, and the border crossing feels like stepping into another world rather than another country.

The Centovalli is the Switzerland -- and the Italy -- that existed before tourism arrived. It is the landscape of working people, of chestnut gatherers and chimney sweeps, of smugglers and painters, of communities that built their lives on slopes too steep for easy living. And the narrow-gauge railway that threads through it is the slender lifeline that connected these valleys to the wider world.

For the return journey, you can retrace the route or make a loop: take the Centovalli Express back to Locarno, or catch a Simplon train from Domodossola to Brig and continue through the Lotschberg to Bern or the Rhone Valley to the Glacier Express route.

ch.tours offers audio guides for Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, the Gotthard Panorama Express, and many more Swiss routes. The Centovalli connects naturally to the Locarno-Ascona-Brissago Islands experience.

Thank you for traveling the Hundred Valleys with us. The mountains are steep, the bridges are narrow, and the beauty is absolute.

Source: ch.tours | Audio Guide Script | Last updated: March 2026 | Data from FART (centovalli.ch), MySwitzerland.com, SBB (sbb.ch), Swisstopo