Swiss/Italian boarders, customs formalities
 

I would like to know if there are any customs formalities when travelling from Switzerland to Italy by train, if I do travel by train, I'll travel by the Bernina express from Switzerland to Italy. I know Switzerland in not an EU country, while Italy is. I remember reading that you must get a passport stamp at the first point of entry to the Schengen Zone. I have a Canadian passport.

Thanks in advance.

I rode the Cisalpino train from Luzern to Milan in October. We did go through customs formalities (train stopped and Italian and Swiss customs agents boarded the train). Every passport was checked and if something looked strange, they pulled people off the train.

Switzerland is now a Schengen country, so you should not have passport controls, however that doesn't mean you won't have them - all countries reserve the right to check passports if they want to. Customs is a different thing to immigration, but i don't think customs will check you either.

freeman0819, did Swiss/Italian immigration officers stamp your passport?

I do like getting passport stamps.

hetismij, we must have been typing at the same time, I didn't know Switzerland was part of Schengen, since I am flying into Zurich, I'll get my passport stamped for the Schengen Zone in Zurich.

Surprisingly, we had no passports or anything checked when we travelled from Milan to Lugano by train in 2005.

Switzerland joined the Schengen agreement in December 2008. All experiences before that date are not valid any more. Unless there are any momentary problems, like border police currently looking for someone or similar, there will be no border controls and no customs formalities at all and you won't even get to see any officer who could stamp your passport.

Schengen abolition of border controls at land border (including on trains) started last December, but only began March 29th at airports.
What happens on international trains varies. There is no routine passport check, but often a police team board the train and make random check on documents and search for drugs/contrabands. This happens quite regularly on trains out of the Netherlands (Amsterdam's coffee shops are well known), and other trains into Germany. Officers often only check documents of those of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origins, and possessions of backpackrs and other young travellers.