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.
A 343 km round trip from Bellinzona - roughly 5 h 02 in the saddle. The stops in between: Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag, Sacro Monte Calvario and back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,850 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 82 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 Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag.
Lago di Varese is the quiet one. The big lakes, Maggiore and Lugano, grab the postcards and the coach tours, while this shallow, reedy sheet of water just west of Varese gets on with being pretty in a modest way. Off its western shore, a few hundred metres out from Biandronno, floats a tiny wooded island called Isolino Virginia, and that speck of land is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Alpine world.
Read the complete Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sacro Monte Calvario.
Domodossola's holy mountain rises immediately above the town, on the wooded Mattarella hill, and the walk or ride up gives you the whole Ossola valley at your feet. The Sacro Monte Calvario was begun in the seventeenth century as a devotional path of chapels depicting the Passion of Christ, each holding painted and sculpted scenes, leading up to a sanctuary church at the top. It is one of the nine Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy inscribed together on the UNESCO list, and it has a particular link with Antonio Rosmini, the philosopher-priest who founded his religious institute here in the nineteenth century.
Read the complete Sacro Monte Calvario write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 171 km into the recorded legs you reach Sacro Monte Calvario. Next is back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag, 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 → Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag → Sacro Monte Calvario is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sacro Monte Calvario → back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag → Castel Grande is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.