Valli di Lodano and The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
338 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 22
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.
From Cevio it runs 338 km to Cevio; allow about 6 h 22 of riding. On the way it passes Castel Grande, Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c and back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy. 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. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Ticino Lakes and Valleys Route
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.
Chapter facts
Length
39 km
Named road
Ticino Lakes and Valleys Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Valli di Lodano
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Valli di Lodano is where the day begins. Next is Castel Grande.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Castel Grande comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy.
3. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy. Next is The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c.
4. The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c
The Lombards get a bad press in most history books, which tend to treat them as the barbarians who arrived in Italy in 568 and broke what was left of Roman order. Castelseprio tells a subtler story. On a wooded spur above the Olona valley, north-west of Milan, stand the ruins of a late Roman and Lombard castrum, a fortified town that controlled the road between the plain and the Alpine lakes, and just outside its walls is the little church of Santa Maria foris portas, whose frescoes are among the most mysterious and beautiful paintings of early medieval Europe. Down by the river, the stout stone Torba tower, later part of a Benedictine nunnery, completes the group. Together they form one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of the Lombards in Italy.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Valli di Lodano closes the day.
Leg by leg
Valli di Lodano to Castel Grande
Valli di Lodano → Castel Grande is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castel Grande to Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
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 to The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c
Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy → The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c to back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
The castrum with the Torba Tower and the c → back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy to back through Castel Grande
back through 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 to Valli di Lodano
back through Castel Grande → Valli di Lodano is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.