Monte San Giorgio and Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi starting at Mendrisio
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
278 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 30
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 278 km to Mendrisio; allow about 5 h 30 of riding. On the way it passes Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag, Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità, Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi and back through Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monte San Giorgio is where the day begins. Next is Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità, 28 km on.
3. Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità
High above the western shore of Lake Maggiore, in a forest of chestnut and beech above the village of Ghiffa, a small sanctuary dedicated to the Holy Trinity looks out over the water to the hills of Lombardy. The Sacro Monte of Ghiffa began in the seventeenth century as a series of chapels along a path, each meant to illustrate a scene from sacred history for pilgrims, but it was never completed as planned. It is the smallest of the nine Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy listed by UNESCO in 2003, and its charm lies in its intimacy and its setting: a few chapels, a porticoed walkway and a church in the woods, with the lake shining below.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 102 km into the recorded legs you reach Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità. Next is Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi.
4. Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi
Lake Orta is the quiet sister of Lake Maggiore, smaller, calmer and more mysterious, and on a wooded hill above its prettiest town stands a holy mountain dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi. The Sacro Monte di Orta is a path through a park of beech and chestnut trees, linking twenty chapels built from the end of the sixteenth century onward, each containing life-size terracotta statues and frescoes depicting scenes from the life of the saint. It is one of the nine holy mountains of Piedmont and Lombardy listed together by UNESCO in 2003, created during the Counter-Reformation as places of pilgrimage and devotion.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monte San Giorgio closes the day.
Leg by leg
Monte San Giorgio to Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag
Monte San Giorgio → Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag to Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag → Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità to Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi
Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità → Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi to back through Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità
Sacro Monte di San Francesco d’Orta San Gi → back through Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità to back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag
back through Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità → back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag to Monte San Giorgio
back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag → Monte San Giorgio is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.