Ticino Tremola Weekend Warmth

Two passes and 294 km, high point 2106 m

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Why this ride

South-side light, old stone road and a proper overnight mood. Out of Andermatt and back again: 294 km, roughly 5 h 39 in the saddle. On the way it passes Airolo and Lago Maggiore evening. The climbs: Gotthard Tremola cobbled road and Lukmanier option. It tops out at 2,106 m. Gotthard Pass and Lukmanier Pass are subject to seasonal closure - check it is open before you set off. It is a high-mountain day.

Roadbook

1. Andermatt base check food · 1444 m

   Andermatt sits in a high, flat valley called the Urseren, at 1,444 metres, where four of the great Swiss passes meet. The Gotthard heads south to Ticino, the Oberalp runs east toward Graubünden, the Furka climbs west to the Valais, and the road north follows the Reuss down through a gorge to Lake Lucerne. People have crossed here for at least eight hundred years, ever since the Devil's Bridge was thrown across the gorge to make the Gotthard route practical, and the village has served travellers and soldiers ever since.

   In 1799, the Russian general Suvorov fought his way through the gorge here with an army, losing many men, an episode remembered in a monument carved into the rock. The Swiss army has a long presence in the valley, and the barracks and fortifications are part of the scene. More recently, Andermatt has been remade with new hotels and apartments and a golf course, which sits oddly with the plain old village centre. It is still a quiet place, with a population of just over a thousand, and a good base.

   For motorcyclists, this is an obvious starting point. In a single day you can do Furka at 2,429 metres, Grimsel at 2,164, Susten at 2,224 and Nufenen at 2,478, if the weather and the traffic allow, and all four are open only from about June until October, depending on snow. Starting early is important, because by ten the roads are busy and by noon the tour buses arrive. The old Tremola road, paved with cobbles, drops down the south side of the Gotthard and is a different experience, slower and bumpier.

   There is fuel in the village, along with bakeries and restaurants, though prices are higher than in the lowlands. Weather changes fast at this altitude, so a warm layer and a rain jacket belong in the luggage even in July.

2. Gotthard Tremola cobbled road pass · 2106 m

   Long before anyone dreamed of a tunnel, the Gotthard was a rumour of a route: a way through the central Alps that, once the Devil's Bridge was thrown across the gorge of the Schöllenen in the thirteenth century, turned a remote valley into the shortest link between northern Europe and Italy. Merchants, pilgrims, soldiers and mule trains all used it, and the hospice at the top gave them a bed. The Tremola, the cobbled stair on the southern side, is the nineteenth-century answer to the same problem.

   Ticino built it in the 1820s and early 1830s, when the canton was young and keen to bind itself to the north, and the engineers laid the road in a zigzag of stone-walled hairpins up the steep face above Airolo. Coaches with six horses made the climb, and the passes were crowded with mail, travellers and the odd famous name. When the railway tunnel opened in 1882 the traffic dried up almost overnight, and the road fell into a long sleep. It was revived in the last few decades, the cobbles relaid, and it now carries riders, cyclists and anyone with an appetite for old engineering.

   The setting changes as you climb. At the bottom the slopes are wooded and warm, with the voices of the south. In the middle the road cuts across bare slabs of gneiss, polished by ice and streaked by seepage. Near the top the air thins and the vegetation shrinks to grass and lichen, and the lake beside the hospice reflects a pale sky. In spring the snow lies in the hollows long after the road has opened, and in autumn the first dusting arrives early.

   The surface needs respect, especially when wet. If you are riding the old road, go on a dry day, keep your speed low and your steering relaxed, and enjoy being part of something that has been going on for two centuries.

3. Airolo fuel stop fuel · 1175 m

   Airolo sits at the southern mouth of the Gotthard, the point where northern and southern Europe seem to hand over to each other in a single valley. At 1,175 metres it is a small town of about fifteen hundred people, and the first sign of Italian Switzerland if you come from Andermatt: the roofs turn to stone, the stucco gets warmer, and the language changes to Italian. It has fuel, cafes, a couple of bakeries and a railway station, and it is a natural place to start or finish a day among the passes.

   The big story here is the Gotthard itself. The railway tunnel, completed in 1882 after years of painful work, ended at Airolo, and the cost in lives was heavy; hundreds of workers died, and the memorials in the town are a reminder. The road tunnel, opened in 1980, runs for about seventeen kilometres to Göschenen, and the new base tunnel, finished in 2016, is the longest railway tunnel in the world at fifty-seven kilometres. Most of the traffic now goes beneath the mountain, which is exactly why the old road is so peaceful.

   That old road is the Tremola, which climbs from Airolo to the Gotthard Pass at 2,106 metres in a series of tight hairpins on cobblestones. The Tremola is a Swiss classic, and the stones give a rattle and a wobble that demand attention, especially in the wet. Ride it slowly, in a low gear, and the views of the Leventina valley are wonderful. The road is closed in winter, usually until late spring, and the cobbles can be treacherous if there is frost in the shade.

   Airolo is also the entry to the Bedretto valley, which leads to the Nufenen Pass, the highest paved pass entirely in Switzerland. Fuel is easy here, and the nearest bigger town to the south is Biasca. If you can, wander down to the old station and the church before you leave, and try a plate of polenta with braised beef in a Ticinese restaurant, which will taste better than anything on the motorway.

4. Lago Maggiore evening base sleep · 200 m

   Locarno sits at the northern tip of Lake Maggiore, at about two hundred metres above sea level, and the lake itself, at roughly a hundred and ninety metres, is the lowest point in Switzerland. The effect is that the air feels soft and mild, even in winter, and palm trees, camellias and magnolias grow along the promenade, a startling sight for anyone who has just ridden down from the snow of the Gotthard. Ticino is Swiss, but it is also Italian in its language, its food and its pace, and the evening here has a distinctly Mediterranean rhythm.

   The Piazza Grande, the long arcaded square in the middle of town, is the centre of life, and in August the huge screen that appears there for the Locarno Film Festival, which began in 1946, draws thousands of people to watch films under the stars. Above the town, the sanctuary of Madonna del Sasso, founded in the late fifteenth century after a vision of the Virgin, clings to a rock with a view over the lake, and can be reached by funicular or a stepped path through chapels. Along the shore, Ascona, a small, pretty town of pastel houses and lakeside cafés, was once a haven for artists, writers and dreamers, and it still has a bohemian charm.

   For a rider, the arrival is a pleasure, because after the long climb and descent of the alpine passes the road drops into warmth and a landscape of vines, chestnut woods and stone villages. In the evening, the lake road and the winding lanes of the nearby valleys, such as the Centovalli, are quiet and beautiful. Traffic in the town centre can be slow on summer evenings, with tourists and local traffic crowding the narrow streets, and parking is tight, so plan to leave the bike in a secure place.

   Locarno and its neighbours, Muralto and Minusio, have a full range of services, with fuel, repair shops, supermarkets and many hotels, and there is no shortage of choice for the night. Book ahead in July and August and during the film festival.

   For supper, find a grotto, a traditional Ticinese restaurant, for polenta, risotto or a plate of local cured meats, with a glass of Merlot, the region's signature red wine.

5. Lukmanier return option pass · 1915 m

   Lukmanier is the quiet sister of the great Gotthard, and for most of its history it was the more important of the two. At 1,915 metres it links Disentis in Graubünden with the Blenio valley in Ticino, and Romans, monks and emperors used it long before the Gotthard became practical. For a rider looking for an easy way back toward the north or south, it offers a long, calm descent without the cobbles and queues.

   The northern approach starts at Disentis, where a large Benedictine abbey stands on a terrace above the Rhine valley, founded in the early Middle Ages and still home to a community of monks. The abbey church is a Baroque confection that rises over the village, and a visit is a calm interlude. From there the road climbs up the Val Medel, past old Romansh villages with stone houses and small chapels, and then breaks out onto the pass through a landscape of lakes and low peaks.

   At the top is the Lai da Sontga Maria, a reservoir with a small chapel on its shore, and the road follows the water for several kilometres. The view is open and quiet, with wind-bent larches and rock slabs. The southern descent takes you down through Olivone and the Val Blenio, a green, steep valley where chestnut woods give way to vineyards and old stone villages, with the road dropping quickly and the air growing warmer with every bend.

   The riding is easy and the surface is good, with long bends and few hairpins, and the traffic is light compared with the main passes. The pass is closed in winter, from around November until late spring, and in early summer snow lines the road. It is an ideal late-afternoon pass, when the light turns the slopes gold and the day-trippers have gone home.

6. Back to Andermatt finish · 1444 m

   Andermatt sits at 1,444 metres in the Urseren valley, a high, wide, treeless hollow in the heart of the Swiss Alps, and it has been a crossroads for centuries. Three great passes meet here: the Gotthard, which runs south to Italy and Ticino at 2,106 metres, the Furka, which climbs west over 2,429 metres toward the Valais, and the Oberalp, which leads east at 2,044 metres into Graubünden. For a motorcyclist it is a kind of Mecca, since the three roads are among the most famous in the Alps, and the town fills with bikes on any fine summer weekend.

   The history is dramatic. North of the town, the Schöllenen gorge is a narrow, steep cut in the granite, and the Devil's Bridge, which crosses the roaring Reuss river, has been a symbol of the Gotthard route since the thirteenth century, when a first bridge opened the pass to trade. In 1799 a Russian army under General Suvorov fought its way through the gorge against the French, an episode remembered with a huge monument carved into the rock. The Swiss army also used the area as a fortress, with tunnels and artillery positions hidden in the mountains. Today, a base tunnel of 57 kilometres runs beneath the Gotthard for trains, the longest railway tunnel in the world, and most traffic passes below the mountain.

   The old Gotthard road, the Tremola, is the part many riders remember: a cobbled road of tight hairpins zigzagging up the south side from Airolo, closed to heavy traffic and thrilling in dry weather. The passes are closed by snow in winter, usually from late autumn until around June, so check before you go. In summer, traffic and weather can change quickly, with fog on the passes and thunderstorms in the afternoon. A Swiss motorway vignette is needed for the motorways.

   Andermatt itself is a modest village with a few hotels, cafes and shops, recently expanded by a large resort development and linked to a ski area. It has a fuel station, though prices are higher than in the lowlands. Try the Älplermagronen, a dish of macaroni, potatoes, cheese and onions with apple sauce, or a hearty rösti after a long day of hairpins. Early mornings are best, before the crowds, when the light on the peaks is golden and the air smells of cut grass.

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