Forty-eight hairpins stacked up one mountainside, and everybody photographs them. The reason to spend a week here is what sits around it: the Gavia one valley south, the Mortirolo below that, and a circuit at the end of it all.
Projected from the real coordinates of every pass and stop. The amber line is day three — the Stelvio itself, driven from Bormio over the summit to Trafoi and back, with the Umbrail on the way home.
The Stelvio is usually open from late May to early November and the Gavia is often later still; both can close for snow at any point in between. We run this week June to September and keep a second day in hand for the Stelvio in case the summit is shut on the first.
Cars are handed over at the hotel on the water. The shakedown is the lake road itself — the Tremezzina to Bellagio and back, narrow, walled and busy enough to remind everyone what mirrors are for. Nothing above 300 m on day one, on purpose.
East along the lake, then the length of the Valtellina — terraced Nebbiolo on the north-facing wall the whole way, and the Aprica pass as a warm-up before Bormio. You arrive at the base you will keep for the next four nights.
Up the Bormio side at dawn, over the top at 2,758 m, then down the northern ramp — the one on every poster, 48 numbered hairpins stacked into the Trafoi wall. Coffee at Prato, back up the same wall while the light is still good, and home over the Umbrail into Switzerland and out again. Two countries, three summits, one road you have wanted to drive since you were fifteen.
The Gavia is what the Stelvio would be without the fame: 25 km of single-track shelf with no barrier in places, a tunnel you meet buses in, and a summit at 2,652 m. Down to Ponte di Legno, then the Mortirolo from Mazzo — 12.5 km of forest road at gradients touching 20 per cent, which is less a view than a test.
The Torri di Fraele climb above Bormio is a private-feeling stack of hairpins to two reservoirs at 1,900 m, and almost nobody drives it. Then the Foscagno pass into Livigno, which is duty-free for historical reasons nobody can quite explain, and back down for an afternoon that belongs to you.
The long transfer, taken the good way: back over the Aprica, down the Val Camonica, then the eastern shore of Lake Iseo with Monte Isola sitting in the middle of it. You finish among the vines of the Franciacorta, which makes sparkling wine by the champagne method and is quietly better at it than it lets on.
Twenty minutes from the hotel to a circuit taken privately for the day: open pit lane, timing, garages, and your guide in the passenger seat for whoever wants laps rather than lap times. It is the only place all week where the limit is a legitimate question. Dinner in the paddock; the transporter loads in the morning.
Bormio is the whole reason this itinerary works: the Stelvio, the Gavia, the Mortirolo and the Cancano road all start within half an hour of it, so four of the six nights are spent in the same room. A lake at the beginning, vineyards at the end.
A 1910 palace on the water opposite Bellagio, with a pool floating in the lake itself. One night, because the point of the week is 200 km north of here — but the right night to start on.
Alternatives on the same shore: Villa d’Este at Cernobbio, or Passalacqua above Moltrasio. Site →
Visit the hotel →A belle-époque spa hotel above Bormio, fed by thermal springs the Romans were already using. Four nights in one bed, thirty baths to fall into after the Gavia, and the Stelvio starts eight kilometres from the door.
Visit the hotel →A country house in the vineyards with a Michelin kitchen and a spa, twenty minutes from the circuit. The last dinner happens here, and nobody has to drive afterwards.
Visit the hotel →Dinner over the water on the first night, looking straight at Bellagio. The briefing happens between courses.
Pizzoccheri, bresaola and Sassella by the glass, in a town that has been feeding people at altitude for centuries. Booked, not websited.
Coffee and cake in the middle of the hairpins, at the only building for a thousand vertical metres.
The last dinner of the week, in the vines, matched to Franciacorta from the estates around it.
We are on the northern ramp at first light. The buses start from Prato at nine and the road is a different, slower place afterwards — this is the only way to drive it properly.
The highest paved pass in Switzerland leaves the Stelvio road two hairpins below the summit and drops into a different country for lunch. Passports in the door pocket.
Thermal water at 37–41 °C in vaulted rooms above Bormio, in use since the first century. It is the reason the Gavia day is survivable.
Details →Italy’s serious method-traditional sparkling, tasted in the cellars that make it rather than at a hotel bar. The last afternoon before the circuit.
Details →The villa on the Como headland — loggia, terraced garden, and the only sensible way in is from the water.
Details →The circuit taken for the group alone on day seven: open pit lane, timing and garages, with no club day to share it with.
Details →Day five keeps its afternoon free and day six ends early among the vines. This is what is within reach of the two bases when the driving is done.
Terraced gardens on a headland, reachable by boat from Lenno. Filmed more often than most actors.
The village at the fork of the lake, and a neoclassical garden that stays open when the crowds thin after five.
The old baths: a Roman tunnel into the rock, a grotto and an outdoor pool looking down the valley.
A duty-free valley at 1,800 m, which makes it either a curiosity or a shopping trip depending on your temperament.
The largest national park in the Italian Alps — ibex, marmots and the Ortler glaciers, with guided walks from Bormio.
The biggest lake island in southern Europe, and no private cars are allowed on it. Boats from Sulzano every twenty minutes.
Tell us the car and the week. We confirm within 48 hours with a route plan, hotel list and the handover address.