If you want to go to a typical alpine village but you don’t know what saint to vote for, we recommend Tirano, a place of pilgrimage for many visitors. In the heart of the Valtellina and two kilometers from the Swiss border, Tirano is famous for the Sanctuary dedicated to Madonna which, in 1504, appeared to a seer to whom Maria ordered to erect a church in her honor, in exchange for healing her affected brother from the plague.
Even today, after centuries, many visitors come to Tirano to pray at the foot of the statue of the Virgin, placed in the left aisle. You will notice photographs of deceased people or birth flakes, which the faithful have decided to leave inside the small chapel as a form of devotion to the Madonna or as a request for protection against loved ones. The Sanctuary, whose polychrome marble becomes iridescent with the change of daylight, is in full Baroque style and contains an imposing organ built in 1600.
The village of Tirano (about which we also speak in the first issue of our digital magazine, e-borghi travel) is very popular with tourists, also because the Bernina Express, more commonly called “Bernina red train”, departs from its train station, which aboard panoramic wagons leads to St. Moritz, Switzerland, giving passengers a breathtaking view of the glaciers of the Canton of Grisons, among which stands the peak of the Bernina, 4019 meters above sea level. A real show … at a step in the sky!
