Val di Fex in the Engadine _8 February

Wherever your gaze rests…it will be fairy tale

A landscape that looks like something out of a postcard, or rather, out of a painting, these are the places that inspired a great painter such as Giovanni Segantini.

Starting from the beautiful Lake Sils, in the Engadine, we climb the road travelled by the typical historic horse-drawn carriages. The height difference is not much and is well distributed. We move along a falsopiano with only a few hairpin bends, skirt a stream, and admire mountain pastures framed by high snow-capped peaks.

At this time of year, it is common for everything to be covered in the whiteness of the snow. The path is well beaten, however, and you can walk easily in boots, but to be even more comfortable and safe, bring light crampons. (If you don’t have them contact me, we rent them for €5 per day).

We reach the renowned Hotel Fex in this splendour, and continue to the bottom of the valley where we find the Alp Muot Selvas refuge, opposite the glacier of the same name. We stop here for a packed lunch before resuming our return journey (the hut is currently closed) .

The route is a loop, crossing a picturesque gorge carved out by the torrent we return to the idyllic village of Sils Maria from where we started.

After this marvellous hike, we will make our own the words of Nietzsche, who wrote of this valley “After all, there is no other place that I love so much!”