Those familiar with Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express would likewise dream of a ride down the same path taken by the Orient. Well, these fans will have their wildest fantasies answered aboard the Bernina Express. Stringing together 144km of the most varied landscape Europe has to offer, this iconic red locomotive will have you lost in your reveries from the borders of Switzerland to Italy.

With a whistle, the Bernina pulls away from its berth in Chur, Switzerland to leave behind the quaint red rafters and immaculate white walls of the oldest city in the country. Through winding narrow passes, teetering across ravines and hugging the sides of the endless mountain giants, the Bernina chugs through an endless scenic reel. Brown cone hats dusted with a tip of snow are reflected, each jagged peak copied out, on the colorless lakes along the Bernina Mountain pass. From the heights of Ospizio Bernina 2,253m above ground, the land is a jade carpet crumpled over the soil hidden beneath. Past forests of alpine fauna, 55 tunnels and 196 bridges which you are unlikely to have kept count of, you emerge into the flower decked Poschiavo Valley. The daydream ends in the town of Tirano, yet as you disembark, the journey is a movie permanently on loop as you relive each bend, each climb and each fall on the ride.