Switzerland’s largest canton, Graubunden, occupies
the entire southeast of the country and takes in a huge but sparsely populated
area that’s the most culturally diverse in Switzerland, bordering on
Liechtenstein and Austria to the north, and Italy to the east and south.
Its folded landscape of deep, isolated valleys sheer
rocky summits and thick pine forests makes it the wildest and loneliest part of
Switzerland, more difficult than most to get around in, but also more rewarding,
with some of the finest scenery in the Alps. Glaciers oozing from between the
high mountains launch two of Europe’s great rivers – the Rhine and the Inn
– on their long journeys to the North Sea and the Black Sea respectively,
while two smaller rivers water pomegranates, figs and chestnuts in secluded
southern valleys en route to the Po and the Gulf of Venice.
The canton is officially trilingual, known as Graubünden in German, Grigioni
in Italian and Grischun in Romansh, the last of these a direct descendant of Latin which has survived locked away in
the mountain fastnesses far from the cantonal capital Chur
since the legions departed 1500 years ago.
The canton’s resorts – headed by St Moritz, Klosters and Davos – are
some of the most famous names in the Alps and offer world-class skiing
and top-quality hiking, but they’re far from the whole story. The beautiful Engadine
valley runs for almost 100km along a southern terrace of the Alps, bathed in
glittering sunlight that pours from blue skies for well over 300 days a year.
This is the heartland of Romansh culture, and once you get out of the main
German-speaking resorts, Romansh language, style and architecture pervade Graubünden’s
far-flung corners. South of the Alps, three of the canton’s most enticing
valleys – Bregaglia and Poschiavo in particular – are entirely Italian speaking, filled with a Mediterranean
lushness in their flora and cuisine that could easily tempt you to leave the
mountains behind and just keep heading south.
Graubünden has every colour: Red for the Rhätische Bahn railway,
yellow for the postal buses, blue for its 615 lakes and the skies above 150
valleys, green for forests and pastures, golden brown for larch trees in autumn,
grey for castles and rocks, and white for snow and ice. Choose red to take the
Rhätische Bahn to Klosters, Davos, Arosa, St. Moritz, the Surselva region,
the Engadine and Valposchiavo. Choose yellow and see Savognin and the Müstair
valley, Lenzerheide, and the Mesolcina and Bregaglia valleys by postal bus. Pick
grey for climbing a sheer rock face, and white for storming peaks and traversing
glaciers.