Stelvio Pass and the Great Dolomites Road

Ortler Alps and Dolomites, South Tyrol · Italy

Moderate5 daysEurope~£850 est.

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Overview

Two legends, one five-day Italian loop. The Stelvio Pass stacks forty-eight numbered hairpins up its Prato ramp to 2,757 m — the second-highest paved pass in the Alps, and the most theatrical piece of road engineering on the continent. From the top, the bends fall away beneath you like a dropped ribbon; walk ten minutes from the pass hotels for the full view, then eat bratwurst at a summit stall because this was Austria once. From Bormio, swing east through the Val Venosta's orchards and pick up the Great Dolomites Road, the 1909 tourist route from Bolzano to Cortina d'Ampezzo. It laces the Passo Pordoi and Falzarego between the pale towers of the Sella and Marmolada, and late light on those walls — the enrosadira, when the rock burns pink — is the trip's quiet climax. The variables: the Stelvio opens from roughly late May to October and draws motorbikes in droves at weekends — go midweek, early; occasional Bike Days close it to cars entirely; and Cortina's hotels price like the resort it is. Around £850 per person for five days of rifugio lunches and strudel, from a Milan or Innsbruck start.