Simplon village sits at about 1,470 metres on the northern slope of the Simplon Pass, in the Swiss canton of Valais, and it is a place that gets its living from a road. A cluster of stone houses with dark timber upper floors, a church tower and an old inn stands on a green shelf above the Gantertal, and the Alps close in on every side. In winter the snow is deep, in summer the meadows are full of flowers, and at all times there is a faint sense of being on a route to somewhere else.
The road is the story. Traders had crossed the Simplon since the Middle Ages, and in the seventeenth century a merchant named Kaspar Jodok von Stockalper built a trading empire on it, with warehouses, a hospice and a mule track that made the pass practicable. His great palace still stands in the town of Brig, on the northern side. In 1801 Napoleon ordered a carriage road across the pass, and the modern road still follows much of that line.
The ride up from Brig is a long, rhythmic climb, with the road looping up the hillside and crossing the Ganter bridge, a modern concrete viaduct that stretches across a deep gorge. The curves are open, the gradient is moderate, and the surface is generally excellent. In the village, the road slows to a village speed and passes between houses, and then it opens again for the last climb to the summit. Traffic can be heavy on summer weekends, when cars and buses from northern Europe stream over to Italy, and a quiet morning is better.
Simplon Dorf has a few inns and cafes, a small shop and a post office, and the food is typical Valais cooking, with raclette, dried meats and rye bread. The local Walliser Roggenbrot is a dense, dark loaf made with rye, and it keeps well in a pannier.
For fuel, do not rely on the village, as there is little here. Brig, about fourteen kilometres below on the northern side, is the nearest large town, with several stations, and Domodossola, on the southern side, also offers plenty. Fill the tank before the climb, and bring a warm layer, because the weather at the top can be cold and windy even on a clear day.