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 Mendrisio it runs 99 km to Mendrisio; allow about 2 h 23 of riding. It goes by way of Bodio centrale o delle Monete, Mercurago and back through Bodio centrale o delle Monete. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Monte San Giorgio is where the day begins. Next is Bodio centrale o delle Monete.
Gavirate, on the northern shore of the Lago di Varese in Lombardy, has a sweet claim to fame: it is the home of the brutti ma buoni, ugly but good, crunchy biscuits made with hazelnuts and egg whites, which were reportedly invented here in the nineteenth century and are still sold in local pastry shops. The lake itself is a small, shallow lake surrounded by low hills, and its shores were home to some of the earliest pile-dwelling villages in Italy. The site of Bodio Centrale, also known as delle Monete, on the southern shore near Bodio Lomnago, is part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, listed by UNESCO in 2011.
Read the complete Bodio centrale o delle Monete write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bodio centrale o delle Monete comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mercurago.
Just south of Arona, at the southern tip of Lago Maggiore, a small regional park protects a landscape of woods, meadows and peat bogs called the Lagoni di Mercurago. The lagoni are small ponds and wetlands formed after the retreat of the glaciers, and in the nineteenth century, while peat was being dug, the remains of a Bronze Age pile dwelling settlement were found here, including a wooden wheel. Mercurago is part of the UNESCO site of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Mercurago write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Mercurago. Next is back through Bodio centrale o delle Monete.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bodio centrale o delle Monete write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bodio centrale o delle Monete, late in the day. Next is Monte San Giorgio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monte San Giorgio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Monte San Giorgio. That is the ride.
Monte San Giorgio → Bodio centrale o delle Monete is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bodio centrale o delle Monete → Mercurago is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mercurago → back through Bodio centrale o delle Monete is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bodio centrale o delle Monete → Monte San Giorgio is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.