Clickety clack along Lombardy's rail track

Forty-two tunnels and galleries, 144 viaducts and bridges. The Albula rail line is a feat of spectacular technical engineering. Together with the Bernina pass, with 13 tunnels and 52 bridges, these two tracks make up the Rhaetian Railway that crosses from Italy's Lombardy region through the Swiss Alps. Just to see a photo of this exemplary construction is awe-inspiring. To ride it leaves a lasting impression.

Riding the Rhaetian Railway you can comprehend the importance of its existence to human life in the mountains. It overcame the isolation of Alpine settlements and was crucial to the social and economic development of these towns.

In contrast to the rail line's dramatic impact on human settlements in the Central Alps, its aesthetic harmony with the environment is a tribute to the ingenuity of its architects. The trip glides through landscapes of lakes and fields, slides around the unusual Bruiso circle and climbs past glaciers and rock crags without destroying the varied environments by its structure.

Practically, the railway was built in severe mountain conditions, but that didn't stop its engineers from creating the highest rail crossing of the Alps, or from conquering a gradient of 70 per cent without using rack and pinion. A jaunt on the Albula and Bernina lines is a trip on the best of early 20th century railroad innovation.

The ride begins at Tireno, in Lombardy's north and not far from Lake of Como, and carries visitors over the border to the Swiss town of Engadin. In all the track is only 128kms and a journey over and back is a relaxing day trip through the heights of the panoramic Alps.

Nestled in the snug red carriages, some with open platforms during summer, and admiring the technical brilliance of the railroad or the breath-taking scenery below, a trip on the Rhaetian Railway gives fresh impetus to the mantra it's not the destination but the journey that counts.