Most people who stop in Bellinzona look up at the castles. Spend a little time at street level instead and you will find the other half of the story: the walls of the old borgo, the medieval town that grew up beneath Castel Grande. Stretches of these ramparts still enclose the old centre, linking the castles to each other and to the great Murata, the wall that once ran right across the floor of the Ticino valley to the river, so that nothing could pass north or south without the Duke of Milan's permission.
Inside the walls, Bellinzona feels thoroughly Italian. The Piazza Collegiata is dominated by the Renaissance church of Saints Peter and Stephen, its pale façade facing a square of arcades and cafés. Narrow streets lead to the Piazza Nosetto and the town hall, whose courtyard is painted with frescoes of old Bellinzona. In February the whole town goes slightly mad for Rabadan, one of the biggest carnivals in Switzerland, with parades, masks, music and risotto served in the streets.
For a rider, the walls are a good reminder of why this town matters. Bellinzona sits where the routes from two of the great Alpine passes come together, the Gotthard via the Leventina and the San Bernardino via the Mesolcina, before carrying on towards Lugano, Locarno and Milan. That geography makes the town a natural pause on almost any tour through southern Switzerland. The roads out of town are a mix: motorway and busy main roads in the valley, but within minutes you can be climbing into the hills on narrow, twisting lanes with stone villages and chestnut forests.
Look around at the hillsides: chestnut trees everywhere, the old staple food of these valleys, ground into flour in hard times. In autumn the woods are full of people gathering them, and you can buy roasted chestnuts from street vendors. Higher up, the forests turn to larch and pine, and the side valleys are full of waterfalls and granite.
Bellinzona has all the services you could want: fuel, restaurants, hotels and mechanics. Park outside the old town and walk in, since the centre has restricted traffic. Find a seat in the Piazza Collegiata, order a coffee or a glass of Merlot, and watch the town go by under the walls that once decided who could cross the Alps.