Pordoi is the high point of the Sella Ronda, a pass of 2,239 metres between the Fassa valley and Arabba, and for many people the one with the best view in the Dolomites. The road climbs from Canazei in about thirty hairpins to the saddle, where a big car park, a few restaurants and the cable car to Sass Pordoi cluster beneath the pale cliffs of the Sella massif. On a clear day, the rock turns pink and gold at dusk, the effect known locally as the enrosadira.
The Dolomites are made from an ancient coral reef lifted from the sea, which is why the mountains look so unlike the Alps further west: pale, vertical and fretted with towers. During the First World War the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies fought here on the very peaks, and tunnels and trenches still scar the rocks, particularly on nearby Marmolada. The Pordoi road was built in the early twentieth century and has been a motorcyclists' favourite since the first bikes could climb it.
The ride is excellent but crowded. In July and August, weekends bring an endless stream of motorbikes, cyclists and campervans, and the best time is early morning or an evening in September, when traffic has thinned and the larches begin to turn gold. The surface is good, the bends are nicely engineered, and you can link it with the Sella, Gardena and Campolongo passes in a classic loop of about fifty kilometres. Police and local authorities have at times introduced limits and noise controls in the area, so ride considerately.
Canazei, a town of around a thousand people at the bottom, has fuel, hotels and food, so use it before the climb. At the top, a plate of local speck, canederli dumplings and a strudel, with a mountain-hut coffee, takes the edge off the cold. Snow can fall on the pass in any month, and the road is closed in winter, normally from late autumn to late spring, so check conditions. Wear warm gloves even on a hot day in the valley.