Sacro Monte del Rosario di Varese and Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
341 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 55
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Induno Olona it runs 341 km to Induno Olona; allow about 5 h 55 of riding. It goes by way of Sacro Monte Calvario, Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch and back through Sacro Monte Calvario. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Italy into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Simplon Pass Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 65 km this is Simplon Pass Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
65 km
Named road
Simplon Pass Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Sacro Monte del Rosario di Varese
Above Varese, on the flank of the Campo dei Fiori, a cobbled path climbs two kilometres or so through woods and past fourteen chapels to a medieval sanctuary and the tiny village of Santa Maria del Monte. Each chapel contains a life-size scene of the mysteries of the Rosary, with painted terracotta figures and frescoed backgrounds, and the whole ensemble, built in the seventeenth century under the architect Giuseppe Bernascone, is one of the nine Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2003.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sacro Monte del Rosario di Varese is where the day begins. Next is Sacro Monte Calvario.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sacro Monte Calvario comes up 65 km in. Next is Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch.
3. Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
No road comes anywhere near. This is a landscape of ice, rock and sky, the first Alpine area to be listed as a World Heritage site, and the riding is all around it rather than through it.