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.
301 km from Bellinzona to Bellinzona, about 6 h 12 of riding. On the way it passes Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, Monte San Giorgio, Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag and back through Monte San Giorgio. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
36 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 49 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Bellinzona is a small city in a very big position. It stands where the Ticino valley opens into the Magadino plain, at the point where the roads from the San Gottardo and San Bernardino passes both come down from the Alps, and whoever held it controlled the way between Milan and the north. That is why three castles crown the rocky hills above the town, linked by a long wall that once barred the whole valley. Castelgrande, the oldest, stands on a rock in the centre, Montebello on a spur above, and Sasso Corbaro on a high hill farther back, and together they were listed by UNESCO in 2000 as outstanding examples of medieval fortification.
Read the complete Three Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Three Castles is where the day begins. Next is Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy.
On the western shore of Lake Como, above the village of Ossuccio and facing the little Isola Comacina, a cobbled path climbs the hillside through olive groves and woods, past fourteen small chapels, to a sanctuary at the top. This is the Sacro Monte of Ossuccio, one of nine sacred mountains in Piedmont and Lombardy listed together by UNESCO. Built in the seventeenth century, the chapels illustrate the Mysteries of the Rosary with life-size terracotta and plaster figures arranged in dramatic scenes, each one a small piece of theatre.
Read the complete Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Read the complete Monte San Giorgio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 118 km into the recorded legs you reach Monte San Giorgio. Next is 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.
Read the complete Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag, about halfway. Next is back through 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 through Monte San Giorgio sits at 119 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy comes up about 233 km into the recorded legs. Next is Three Castles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Three Castles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Three Castles closes the day.
Three Castles → Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy → Monte San Giorgio is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monte San Giorgio → Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag → back through Monte San Giorgio is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monte San Giorgio → back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy → Three Castles is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.