Welcome
Milan to Glasgow – by train. This odyssey, made easier by a couple of overnight stops, presented an opportunity to take in the south western Alps by TGV and the Tweedsmuir Hills by Pendolino. After a minor mix up in Milan – I had forgotten the Paris train goes from Garibaldi station, not Centrale – we left 15 down, thanks to a late incoming service and a drama involving a luggage thief, who lifted a case off the train but was chased down the platform and apprehended.
The route traverses the northern Italian plain to Turin, after which the climb into the mountains begins. Notionally this is a Train à Grande Vitesse, but the speed is pedestrian as the slopes steepen beside the train.
Bardonecchia is the last settlement in Italy before plunging into the Fréjus (or Mont Cenis) tunnel, which crosses underneath the Italian-French border. This was the first Alpine rail tunnel, opened to traffic in 1871, and an immense engineering triumph for the time: at over 12km, it was twice as long as anything that had hitherto been attempted. Now there is a proposal for a Lyon to Turin base tunnel to supplement it, if the French and Italians can be civil enough to each other to complete it.
We emerge into the day…
