Detour #16: Stelvio Pass, Italy
Top Gear once called the Stelvio Pass the world’s best road. So, if you’ve got a passion for four wheels or two, a pilgrimage is obligatory.
As always, careful planning in critical to enjoying any visit. Rise early to beat the hundreds of cars, motorcycles and bicycles dicing in both directions as they head either down to Bormio on the Italian side or up to the top. Getting in amongst it all is a test of nerves because you are dive-bombed by motorcycles, have to swerve around cyclists and squeeze between gaps in the oncoming traffic. It’s clear that to have the most fun on this road you need to set your alarm.
Photo Jean Wimmerlin / Unsplash
And the Italian side, with its 48 hairpins is the better place to begin. The first few kilometres are wooded, the hairpins are spread out, linked by more open, flowing sections, but as the road climbs out of the forests, the switchbacks get closer together. Depending on what you’re driving they’ll be second or even first gear corners and it becomes a routine of accelerate, brake, steer, accelerate again, working the gears up and down and using all the steering lock available.
A challenge? Yes. But the best road in the world? We’re not so sure.
Words Nik Berg Twitter | Instagram
Photography John Wycherley @johnwycherley
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Roadbook
Class: Mountain Pass
Name: SS38 Stelvio Pass
Route: Bormio to Stilfs
Country: Italy/Swizerland
Distance: 26 miles