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.
From Cevio it runs 219 km to Cevio; allow about 3 h 54 of riding. The stops in between: Castel Grande, Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy and back through Castel Grande. 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.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 39 km this is Ticino Lakes and Valleys Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Halfway up the Maggia valley in Ticino, a narrow side valley climbs steeply west from the village of Lodano into a forest that has been left almost untouched for decades. The Valli di Lodano, together with the neighbouring valleys of Busai and Soladino, form a forest reserve in which beech trees grow from the valley floor up to the tree line, and in 2021 they were added to the World Heritage site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of Europe, a series of forests spread across eighteen countries. Walking up into the reserve, you pass through old chestnut groves, then into the beech forest, with moss-covered boulders, streams and the sound of falling water everywhere.
Read the complete Valli di Lodano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Valli di Lodano is where the day begins. Next is Castel Grande.
Coming down from the Gotthard or the San Bernardino, the Ticino valley narrows into a bottleneck at Bellinzona, and right in the middle of it, on a rocky hill above the old town, sits Castel Grande. Its two square towers and long crenellated walls are the oldest and largest of the three castles of Bellinzona, which together with the defensive wall across the valley make up a World Heritage site.
Read the complete Castel Grande write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castel Grande comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy. Next is back through Castel Grande.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castel Grande write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castel Grande, late in the day. Next is Valli di Lodano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Valli di Lodano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Valli di Lodano. That is the ride.
Valli di Lodano → Castel Grande is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castel Grande → 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 → back through Castel Grande is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castel Grande → Valli di Lodano is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.