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 549 km round trip from Molina di Ledro - roughly 11 h 34 in the saddle. The stops in between: Dolomiti di Brenta, Parco Pluritematico, Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair and back through Parco Pluritematico. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Italy into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 124 km this is Gavia Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
In 1929, when the level of Lake Ledro was lowered to feed a hydroelectric plant, thousands of wooden posts emerged from the mud near Molina di Ledro. They were the remains of a Bronze Age pile-dwelling village, inhabited some four thousand years ago, and the finds included pottery, tools, weapons, and a canoe. Molina di Ledro is part of the UNESCO-listed Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, and the Museo delle Palafitte, on the lake shore, displays the finds alongside reconstructed huts on stilts.
Read the complete Molina di Ledro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Molina di Ledro is where the day begins. Next is Dolomiti di Brenta.
The Brenta Dolomites stand apart from the rest of the Dolomites, a separate range west of the Adige valley, and they look as if they were carved by someone with a taste for drama: sheer walls, needle-sharp spires and long ledges of pale limestone glowing pink at dawn and dusk. The range is part of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage site, listed in 2009, and it is protected within the Adamello Brenta Nature Park, home to brown bears, which were reintroduced here from Slovenia around the turn of the millennium.
Read the complete Dolomiti di Brenta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dolomiti di Brenta comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parco Pluritematico.
Valcamonica holds one of the largest collections of prehistoric rock carvings in the world, some three hundred thousand figures pecked into the smooth glacier-polished rocks of the valley over thousands of years, from hunters and deer to warriors, ploughs, houses and mysterious symbols. It was the first Italian site to be listed by UNESCO, in 1979. In the upper valley, near Sonico, a few kilometres south of Edolo, a multi-themed park around the rocks of Còren de le Fate, the fairies' rock, offers carvings, nature trails and an insight into the life of the valley.
Read the complete Parco Pluritematico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 184 km into the recorded legs you reach Parco Pluritematico. Next is Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair.
In the high, narrow Val Mustair, at the point where Switzerland meets South Tyrol and the Stelvio national park, there is a Benedictine convent that was founded, according to tradition, by Charlemagne himself around the year 800. Whether or not the emperor's role is exactly as the legend has it, the convent of St John is certainly Carolingian, and it keeps the largest cycle of Carolingian wall paintings anywhere. The figures, painted in the early ninth century, cover the walls of the church in red, yellow and green, in a lively, slightly naive style, with scenes from the life of David and the story of Christ, and later Romanesque frescoes were painted over them in places. UNESCO listed it in 1983.
Read the complete Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair, about halfway. Next is back through Parco Pluritematico.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Parco Pluritematico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Parco Pluritematico sits at 231 km, about halfway. Next is back through Dolomiti di Brenta.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dolomiti di Brenta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dolomiti di Brenta comes up about 490 km into the recorded legs. Next is Molina di Ledro.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Molina di Ledro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Molina di Ledro closes the day.
Molina di Ledro → Dolomiti di Brenta is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dolomiti di Brenta → Parco Pluritematico is 124 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parco Pluritematico → Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair → back through Parco Pluritematico is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Parco Pluritematico → back through Dolomiti di Brenta is 123 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dolomiti di Brenta → Molina di Ledro is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.