For a magical, Narnia back-of-the-wardrobe experience, visit picture perfect Rasa, Ticino’s quietest, most isolated and inaccessible village. Step out of the tiny cable car, the only link between Rasa and the rest of Switzerland, and you’ll suddenly find yourself in a bucolic nineteenth century time warp without cars or modern buildings. 

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Around you a totally unspoilt village of traditional stone roofed houses and a land of densely forested mountains, deep gorges and Alpine meadows. Isolated from the world until the cable car was built, Rasa is the last inhabited village in Ticino with no road access.

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To get there, take the Vigezzina/Centovalli mountain train from Domodossola to Locarno train and get off at Verdasio station. The hair-raising cable car ride crosses from one side of the valley to the other, 600 metres above the river in the valley bottom. This is not the best time to find out that the cable car is 58 years old and definitely showing its age. Tickets are bought from a machine and the cable car leaves every 20 minutes.

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There are no cable car rides between November and March which means that Rasa is totally deserted through the winter months, essentially a ghost town. The whole journey to Rasa can be made by public transport as the cable car station is located next to the Domodossola-Locarno mountain railway line.

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Though manageable in one day, unless you set out early in the morning, you might be pushed for time as you have to factor in the train ride to Domodossola followed by the very leisurely mountain railway and lastly the cable car ride. It may be worth considering staying overnight in the picturesque mountain town of Santa Maria Maggiore, or, less romantically, travelling by car. In addition to Rasa, there are a couple of other picturesque hamlets which have recently been expertly renovated, Bordei and Terra Vecchia, both of which can be reached on foot.