Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te and Molina di Ledro
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
320 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 56
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.
320 km from Darfo Boario Terme to Darfo Boario Terme, about 5 h 56 of riding. It goes by way of Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di, Parco Pluritematico, Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be and Molina di Ledro. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Scenic road chapters
Passo di Vivione
27 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it — this is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
Length
26 km
Pass
Passo di Vivione
Mortirolo Pass Road
For about 20 km this is Mortirolo Pass Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Chapter facts
Length
20 km
Named road
Mortirolo Pass Road
Pass
Passo di Vivione
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te
Valcamonica, the long valley of the Oglio river north of Lake Iseo, holds one of the largest collections of prehistoric rock carvings in the world, with hundreds of thousands of figures pecked into smooth glacier-polished rocks over thousands of years. It was the first site in Italy to be listed by UNESCO, in 1979. The Luine park, on a wooded hill above Darfo Boario Terme at the southern end of the valley, is one of the places where you can see these engravings up close, with paths leading between rock surfaces covered in figures of animals, people, weapons and mysterious symbols.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te is where the day begins. Next is Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di.
2. Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di
Several thousand years of people have been scratching pictures onto the rocks of Val Camonica, and the oldest are thought to be roughly eight thousand years old. The valley runs north from Lake Iseo in Lombardy, following the Oglio river up to the Tonale pass, and its glacier-polished sandstone slabs turned out to be an ideal canvas. The Camuni, an Iron Age people, carved thousands of figures: hunters, deer, warriors, ploughs, huts, dancing figures and a swirling sun-like motif that is now the emblem of the Lombardy region, the Rosa Camuna. In 1979 this became Italy's first World Heritage site.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parco Pluritematico.
3. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 46 km into the recorded legs you reach Parco Pluritematico. Next is Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be.
4. Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be
Seradina is the part of Valcamonica that shows how the Camuni told stories. On a broad slab of polished sandstone, shaped by a glacier and now shaded by oak and chestnut, a crowd of tiny figures has been pecked into the surface: men ploughing with oxen, hunters stalking deer, warriors with round shields, huts on stilts and fields marked out in squares. The scenes were carved over many centuries by people who lived by farming and herding, and they read like a diary of an Alpine community from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Nearby, the Bedolina rock holds a famous design often described as a map, a network of lines, dots and little houses that seems to record fields and paths.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be, about halfway. Next is Molina di Ledro.
5. Molina di Ledro
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 320 km.
Leg by leg
Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te to Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di
Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te → Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di to Parco Pluritematico
Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di → Parco Pluritematico is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parco Pluritematico to Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be
Parco Pluritematico → Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be to Molina di Ledro
Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be → Molina di Ledro is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Molina di Ledro to back through Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be
Molina di Ledro → back through Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be to back through Parco Pluritematico
back through Parco Archeologico Comunale di Seradina-Be → back through Parco Pluritematico is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parco Pluritematico to back through Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di
back through Parco Pluritematico → back through Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di to Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te
back through Parco Archeologico Nazionale dei Massi di → Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.