From Milan’s Duomo to the Swiss Alps: Crossing the Border by Train

After surviving our sweaty, air-condition-free train ride out of Cinque Terre, we finally pulled into Milano Centrale. This marked the last leg of our Italy trip before continuing on to Switzerland — and, if I’m honest, my first instinct had been to skip Milan entirely and go straight from Cinque Terre to Switzerland.

That plan didn’t survive contact with reality. The journey required changing trains several times regardless, so we had to break it up somewhere, and Milan turned out to be the perfect excuse: I have a long-time colleague who now lives there, and a stopover meant we could finally catch up in person.

To be fully honest, spending less than a full day in Milan doesn’t do the city justice. We only got to see the Duomo and share a nice Italian dinner with good company — Milan clearly deserves a longer visit another time.

Settling In: C Atlantis Hotel

We stayed at C Atlantis Hotel, just a short walk from the train station. Check-in was smooth, and our room was spacious and clean — exactly what you want after a long, hot train journey. We freshened up before heading out to see the Duomo.

The Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Milan’s Duomo is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world, and its construction spanned an almost unbelievable timeline — started in 1386, with the very last gate not completed until 1965. The façade alone carries more than 3,400 statues, and the highest spire is topped with a gilded statue of the Madonna, known locally as the Madonnina, watching over the city. Beyond simply admiring it from the piazza, it’s possible to buy a ticket up to the rooftop terraces (by stairs or lift) and walk directly among the spires, gargoyles, and flying buttresses — a genuinely different experience from viewing most cathedrals from the ground.

Right beside the Duomo sits the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the oldest shopping arcades in the world and a Milan icon in its own right. Built between 1865 and 1877 by architect Giuseppe Mengoni, this soaring iron-and-glass arcade connects Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Scala, and the Milanese affectionately call it il salotto di Milano — the city’s drawing room. It’s free simply to walk through and admire the mosaics, marble floors, and domed glass ceiling; only the shops, cafés, and restaurants inside will charge you (often at a premium, given the address). It’s worth setting aside a slow fifteen minutes here regardless of whether you’re buying anything.

We spent some time at the Duomo taking photos and watching Achita excitedly chase pigeons across the piazza, before heading to dinner with my friend. After dinner, they kindly drove us back past the Duomo at night, which somehow looked even more majestic silhouetted against the dark sky — worth doing if your evening allows for it.

If You Have One Full Day in Milan

Since we only managed a rushed evening, here’s what I’d actually plan for if you have a proper full day in the city, based on what locals and other Milan regulars consistently point to:

• Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie — genuinely one of the most-requested tickets in Italy, so book weeks (ideally months) ahead if this is a priority.
• Sforza Castle (Castello Sforzesco), a sprawling Renaissance fortress with several museums inside and a large park behind it, good for a slower morning.
• Teatro alla Scala, one of the world’s most famous opera houses, sitting at the far end of the Galleria — even a quick look at the square outside, or a museum visit if you have time, is worth it.
• The Brera district, Milan’s art and bohemian quarter, home to the Pinacoteca di Brera art museum and some lovely quiet streets for wandering.
• The Navigli canals, especially in the early evening, for aperitivo — this is where a lot of the city’s evening social life happens.
• The Quadrilatero della Moda (Fashion Quadrilateral), Milan’s high-fashion shopping district, if The Mall Firenze wasn’t quite enough retail therapy for this trip.

Heading to Switzerland: What You Need to Know

We woke the next morning, enjoy Italian breakfast one last time (We may not able to afford Swiss breakfast the next day), hauled the suitcases back to the station one more time, and boarded our EuroCity train to Switzerland.

If you’re planning the same border crossing by train, here’s what’s genuinely useful to know:

Two tickets, two legs. Journeys from Italy into Switzerland are typically booked as two separate legs — the Italian portion through Trenitalia, and the Swiss portion through the Swiss rail system — even when you’re riding a single physical train the whole way. EuroCity services on this route are jointly operated by Trenitalia and SBB, with the crew changing over at Domodossola, right at the border.

Choose your stopover deliberately. If speed is your priority, the EuroCity train that runs via Domodossola and on to Spiez is the fastest option, and tickets can be booked on either the Trenitalia or Swiss Rail (SBB) website, usually up to three months in advance. If you’re carrying a VAT refund form from Italian shopping, though, it’s worth choosing a slower service that actually stops long enough at Domodossola for you to get your customs stamp there, since Switzerland isn’t part of the EU and can’t stamp Italian purchases once you’ve crossed the border.

We’d booked our EuroCity train in advance, and it carried us from Milan to Spiez in about 2 hours 45 minutes, with genuinely stunning Alpine views appearing well before we’d even reached Swiss soil. The scenery was breathtaking — I could, however, have done without the loud group of American high schoolers who seemed to have wandered straight out of a Spider-Man: Far From Home school trip.

Arriving in Spiez

We got off in Spiez and grabbed lunch at the Migros supermarket directly across from the train station. Migros has an in-house restaurant with reasonably priced meals by Swiss standards — still pricier than Italy, but a genuinely good, low-stress option after a long journey. One useful tip: you don’t need to withdraw Swiss Francs in advance, since credit and debit cards are accepted almost everywhere, though it’s always sensible to carry a little cash just in case.

On to Grindelwald Grund

From Spiez, we continued to Grindelwald Grund, where our Airbnb was waiting. The route involved two swift train changes, at Interlaken Ost and then Grindelwald, but the transfers themselves were entirely painless — Swiss trains are impressively family-friendly, with elevated platforms, elevators, and easy wheelchair and stroller access throughout.

The real challenge turned out to be the walk uphill from Grindelwald Grund to our Airbnb, made worse by the fact that I misread the directions again and sent us on an unplanned detour. That was the exact moment Fabio officially appointed himself the family’s Google Maps reader going forward.

Yes, again I chose Airbnb which requires walking uphill. But once we get there, the view from our balcony made up all those lost calories.

Choosing a Swiss Travel Pass

Switzerland is famously one of the most expensive countries in the world, and travel costs can add up fast. Thankfully, if you’re getting around by public transport, there are several travel pass options designed to soften that blow — choosing the right one for your itinerary genuinely matters.

Swiss Travel Pass: the most popular option for visitors, offering unlimited travel across the Swiss Travel System network for 3, 4, 8, or 15 consecutive days, plus free entry to more than 480 museums and exhibitions. As of 2026, pricing runs roughly CHF 254 for 3 days up to CHF 499 for 15 days in second class. It’s ideal if you want to explore a lot of ground quickly without thinking about individual tickets.

Swiss Travel Pass Flex: the more flexible version of the above, letting you choose your travel days freely within a one-month window, for the same 3, 4, 8, or 15-day durations. Better suited to travelers who won’t need transport every single day.

Swiss Half Fare Card: this is what we chose for our trip. It gives you 50% off nearly everything across Swiss trains, buses, boats, and even some mountain railways, valid for a full month. As of 2026, it costs CHF 150 (a recent increase from the previous CHF 120). It doesn’t include unlimited free travel — you still buy a ticket for every journey — but it’s a genuinely cost-effective choice if your itinerary is built around specific destinations rather than constant daily movement.

Swiss Saver Day Pass: worth knowing about even if you don’t end up using it. It’s a single day of unlimited travel across the same network, but instead of a fixed price, it works on a sliding, demand-based scale — and you can buy it as early as six months before your travel date, right down to the day before (no more buying on the day itself, unlike a few years ago). The catch is that there’s a limited pool of passes at each price tier, so the earlier you book, the better your shot at the cheapest ones before they sell out. At its absolute lowest, it runs CHF 29 in second class — but only if you already hold a Half Fare Card. Without one, the floor is CHF 52. Miss the early window and prices climb from there, sometimes considerably, especially around Swiss holidays.

So when does it beat a plain point-to-point ticket? Basically: when you’ve locked in your itinerary far enough ahead that you can commit to a specific date, and that day involves enough distance that a regular ticket would cost more than CHF 29–52 anyway — think one big cross-country push, like Zurich to Geneva with a couple of stops thrown in. If your day is really just one short hop, a normal ticket (especially with the Half Fare discount) will usually be cheaper. And because the pass is non-refundable and non-changeable, it’s really only worth it if you’re confident that day is happening no matter what — weather, plans changing, or otherwise. We treated ours as an add-on day bolted onto our Half Fare Card itinerary, for the one day where we knew exactly where we’d be and it involved enough ground to make the math work.

A couple of practical notes if you go this route: it’s not the same product as the Swiss Travel Pass or Half Fare Card discussed above, and you can absolutely combine it with a Half Fare Card to unlock the lower price tier — it’s often used that way, as a top-up for one heavy travel day outside what your main pass covers. Just don’t buy it on a whim; book early, and only once you’re sure.

Traveling with kids? Every one of these passes comes with a valuable family bonus: buying any of them entitles you to a free Swiss Family Card, letting children aged 6–15 travel completely free as long as they’re accompanied by at least one paying parent. Children under 6 travel free regardless, no card needed.

Which one is actually best for you? It genuinely depends on your itinerary. If Jungfraujoch is on your list, for instance, the Swiss Travel Pass gets you a 25% discount, while the Half Fare Card gets you a full 50% off. We ran the numbers against our actual plans and found the Half Fare Card came out ahead for us. The one trade-off is that you still need to buy a ticket for each individual journey — though with self-service machines at nearly every station, it’s rarely more than a minor inconvenience.

Closing Thoughts

Crossing from Italy into Switzerland by train ended up being one of the most quietly memorable transitions of the whole trip — one moment we were sweating through a regional train and chasing pigeons around a Gothic cathedral, and a few hours later we were watching the Alps roll past the window on our way to a mountain village. Milan deserved far more than the evening we gave it, and I already know we’ll be back to do it properly. But as a bridge between two very different halves of this holiday, it did its job beautifully.

Switzerland was about to become the last, and longest, leg of this trip — several days based in Grindelwald, with the Alps, glaciers, and (hopefully) considerably fewer navigation mishaps ahead of us.

Next up: our first days in Grindelwald, and what several days in the Swiss Alps actually looks like with two kids in tow.