CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Bellinzona it runs 237 km to Bellinzona; allow about 4 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, Monte San Giorgio and back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 69 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Coming down from the Gotthard or the San Bernardino, the Ticino valley narrows into a bottleneck at Bellinzona, and right in the middle of it, on a rocky hill above the old town, sits Castel Grande. Its two square towers and long crenellated walls are the oldest and largest of the three castles of Bellinzona, which together with the defensive wall across the valley make up a World Heritage site.
Read the complete Castel Grande write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castel Grande is where the day begins. Next is Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy.
On the western shore of Lake Como, above the village of Ossuccio and facing the little Isola Comacina, a cobbled path climbs the hillside through olive groves and woods, past fourteen small chapels, to a sanctuary at the top. This is the Sacro Monte of Ossuccio, one of nine sacred mountains in Piedmont and Lombardy listed together by UNESCO. Built in the seventeenth century, the chapels illustrate the Mysteries of the Rosary with life-size terracotta and plaster figures arranged in dramatic scenes, each one a small piece of theatre.
Read the complete Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monte San Giorgio.
Monte San Giorgio is a wooded, pyramid-shaped mountain on the shores of Lake Lugano, straddling the border between Switzerland and Italy. To the eye, it is a pleasant green hill with villages on its slopes. To palaeontologists, it is one of the most important fossil sites in the world. About two hundred and forty million years ago, during the Middle Triassic, this area was a tropical lagoon, and its sediments preserved an extraordinary range of marine reptiles, fish, invertebrates and plants. The mountain was added to the UNESCO list in 2003 on the Swiss side, and in 2010 on the Italian side.
Read the complete Monte San Giorgio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 118 km into the recorded legs you reach Monte San Giorgio. Next is back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, late in the day. Next is Castel Grande.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castel Grande write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Castel Grande. That is the ride.
Castel Grande → Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy → Monte San Giorgio is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monte San Giorgio → back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy → Castel Grande is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.