Mesocco is a valley village of about thirteen hundred people on the southern side of the San Bernardino, in the Misox, the Italian-speaking arm of Graubünden that opens toward Bellinzona and Lake Maggiore. At nearly eight hundred metres it is the last place of any size before the road climbs to the pass, and it is the right place for a breakfast or a late lunch, with a handful of simple restaurants and cafés serving polenta, cheese, local salami and chestnut dishes, and a small stretch of fuel and shops.
The beautiful thing about the village is its castle. Above the road, on a rock, stand the ruins of the Castello di Mesocco, once a stronghold of the Sax family who controlled the pass in the Middle Ages, and the Romanesque church of Santa Maria del Castello nearby, with frescoes inside, lies on a ledge beneath it. The place was important because the San Bernardino pass was an old trade route over the Alps, used since Roman times, and the lords took tolls from every mule train. The pass road itself took its modern form in the nineteenth century, and since 1967 a long road tunnel has carried most of the heavy traffic underneath, which leaves the old road for those with time to enjoy it.
The ride is the real attraction. From Mesocco the road climbs in a succession of hairpins and gallery stretches through chestnut and beech forest and then spruce, reaching the summit at 2,066 metres beside a small lake, and then descending towards Hinterrhein and the Rhine valley. The corners are well graded, the surface usually good, and the traffic is thinner than on the Gotthard. The pass is closed by snow in winter, so riders should only plan to cross in the warmer months, usually from late spring.
Weather often differs on the two sides: the south may be warm and sunny while cloud sits over the summit, so carry a warm layer. The old road is best early, before the heat, and the smell of woodsmoke and wet stone in the village is a pleasant thing to ride into.