Domodossola: The Alpine Crossroads Nobody Stops to See

The Simplon train has been passing through Domodossola for over a century, carrying passengers from Milan toward Switzerland and back. Almost none of them get off. It is a mistake: Domodossola has a medieval and Renaissance old town of unexpected quality, with a porticoed market square that holds its own against more celebrated Piedmontese centres.

Piazza Mercato and the Old Town

The heart of Domodossola is Piazza Mercato — now Piazza Matteotti — surrounded by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century porticoes with buildings that still bear the coats of arms of the merchant families who traded here for centuries between Italy and Switzerland. Alpine trade over the Simplon was for centuries the city's main resource: the pass was crossed by Napoleon in 1800 with his army, and the Napoleonic Simplon road still connects Domodossola to the Valais over the 2,005-metre pass.

The Vigezzina Railway and the Vigezzo Valley

From Domodossola departs the Vigezzina–Centovalli, a narrow-gauge railway linking the city to Locarno in Switzerland through the Vigezzo Valley and the Ticino Centovalli: two hours of mountain scenery with stone viaducts and chestnut forests, for about 20 euros one way. The Vigezzo Valley is called the valley of painters for its tradition of artists who worked here in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the village of Re houses a Marian sanctuary with an extraordinary cycle of ex-votos.

Travel Practicalities

Domodossola is reachable by train from Milano Centrale in 90 minutes or from Torino Porta Nuova in two hours. The market square hosts a weekly market on Saturday mornings. Local cuisine features polenta concia, gnocchi alla bava and mountain salumi; the restaurant under the Piazza Matteotti porticoes offers lunch menus at 15–20 euros.