Detour #72: Colle de Nivolet, Italy
Photo Samuele Errico Piccarini / Unsplash
“Hang on lads, I’ve got an idea.” Take a drive up the stunning Colle de Nivolet and you’ll be following in the wheeltracks of Michael Caine.
The final cliff-hanging bus crash scene in The Italian Job was filmed on this amazing mountain pass, which packs one of the steepest tunnels in the Alps and no less than 33 hairpin bends into its 32 miles.
Make Pont Cavanese, 40 miles north of Turin, your starting point. Take the SP460 and follow the Orco valley, where fortune seekers once panned for gold. At Locana the ascent begins in earnest. You’ll pass through Noasca and find three numbered tornantes in quick succession before you enter the two-mile tunnel, cut through the heart of the mountains. Although the tunnel is well lit, it is extremely steep and there are a few curves to keep the concentration up.
Emerging back into daylight you’ll find yourself at the Fessura Kosterlitz – a crack in the mountain face that’s popular with adventure-loving climbers. Pass through Ceresole Reale and its man-made lake, which was built at the end of the 1920s to deliver hydro power to the region, and then you will join the SP50 for the arm-twirling climb to the top.
Those 33 hairpins are hard work, there are few barriers and it’s quite narrow, so be careful. Although the road is only open between May and October you can still find snow and ice around. And, on the subject of calendars, steer clear of Sundays and public holidays or you won’t be able to drive all the way to the 2,532m summit.
The views over the bright blue Lago Serrú, Lago Agnel and Lago di Cereosole are beautiful and the dams are quite the feats of civil engineering. Just don’t get too carried away with your driving. It’s a long way down, as Michael Caine and company know only too well.