Hospental is a small village with a big job: it sits in the Urseren valley, a high, treeless basin between the Furka, the Oberalp and the Gotthard, where the Reuss river begins its journey north. Its name comes from the old hospice, a resting place for travellers on the road over the Gotthard, and the village is still very much a gateway. Above the houses stands a stone tower, often called the Lombard tower, a medieval watchtower from which the lords of the valley could see who was coming. Andermatt, a couple of kilometres away, has more shops and fuel, and the nearest sizeable town is Altdorf, thirty kilometres down the valley.
The Gotthard has been one of the great routes across Europe since the thirteenth century, when the Devil's Bridge was thrown across the wild Schöllenen gorge, making the northern approach practicable. Traders, pilgrims, soldiers and mule trains used it for centuries, and later came the carriage road, the railway and the motorway tunnel. Suvorov's Russian army fought its way through here in 1799. The pass itself is at about 2,100 metres, and from Hospental the road climbs gently across moorland to a bare, stony summit with a small lake and a hospice.
The star of the ride, though, is the Tremola, the old road on the southern side, a cobbled staircase of some twenty-four hairpins dropping into the Ticino. The stones are original, carefully restored, and riding them on a bike is a lesson in humility. In the dry they are grippy but bumpy, in the wet they are slick as glass, and the inside of each bend is tighter than it looks. Take it slowly, keep your weight low, and do not brake on the cobbles in a corner. The new road alongside is smoother if you prefer it. Pass closures are seasonal, usually from October to May, so check ahead.
Weather in this valley is its own thing. The air is thin and bright, the wind sweeps down the open basin, and even in July it can be cold enough for gloves. Snow patches linger beside the road in June. Granite surrounds you, grey and fractured, and the smell is of cold stone and wet grass. A coffee in Hospental, with the tower above and the road ahead, is as good a way as any to start the climb.