Gardena Pass, or Passo Gardena in Italian and Grödner Joch in German, climbs to 2,121 meters in the heart of the Dolomites, linking the Val Gardena with the Val Badia. The road crosses a high saddle between the huge grey cliffs of the Sella massif and the Puez-Odle range, and the view from the top is one of those scenes that make people stop and fall silent. The Dolomites were inscribed by UNESCO in 2009, valued for their pale limestone towers and for the way the rock changes color from white to pink to deep red at sunrise and sunset, a glow the local people call enrosadira.
This is Ladin country, and the Ladin language, a Romance tongue related to Romansh, is still spoken in the valleys, alongside Italian and German. Signs often appear in all three languages. Selva, in the Val Gardena, and nearby Ortisei are known for their wood carving, a tradition that produced religious figures and toys for centuries, and a skilled carver can turn a block of linden into a saint in an afternoon. The food is a mix of Tyrolean and Italian, with dumplings, speck, polenta and apple strudel on every menu.
For riders, the Sella Ronda circuit is one of the great loops in the Alps. It links four passes, Gardena, Campolongo, Pordoi and Sella, around the great limestone block, and the full circuit takes a few hours with stops. Gardena itself has smooth surfaces, a series of hairpins on both sides and views of the cliffs from nearly every bend. It is a popular road, and on summer weekends traffic is dense with bikes, cars and cyclists. Some mornings in summer the passes are closed to motor vehicles on set days as part of a program to give cyclists the roads, so check the schedule locally.
The season is short. The passes usually open in late spring and close with the first heavy snow in autumn, and early mornings in June or September are best, when the air is clear and crowds are thin. Weather can change within an hour, with thunderstorms in summer afternoons.
Fuel is available in Selva and Corvara, both a short ride from the summit, and mountain huts near the top serve strong coffee and warm food. Bressanone, a bigger town, lies farther away to the north.