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.
343 km from Bellinzona to Bellinzona, about 5 h 02 of riding. It goes by way of Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag, Sacro Monte Calvario and back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into Italy - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 65 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
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 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 comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Read the complete Sacro Monte Calvario write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 171 km into the recorded legs you reach Sacro Monte Calvario. Next is back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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.
back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag, late in the day. 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.
Back at Three Castles. That is the ride.
Three Castles → Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag → Sacro Monte Calvario is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sacro Monte Calvario → back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Isolino Virginia-Camilla-Isola di San Biag → Three Castles is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.