Highline Autos
GREAT DRIVES ITALY’S STELVIO PASS written by Peter Volny & Linda Goddard Anyone who has watched the original Top Gear on BBC-TV knows that the irreverent trio of hosts voted the Stelvio Pass as one of the best driving roads in the world. It’s a favorite for drivers of high-performance cars and bikes who come from all over Europe and yes even the USA. The road was built in the 1820’s and took five years to complete. Fighting between Italy and the Austro-Hungarians took place along the pass during the First World War. The total distance is just 22 kilometers, and since it’s at 2,758 meters above sea level it’s closed from November to May due to snow.
opposite lock. We’ve also heard that the view is more scenic from this starting point and the route begins with a climb up the steep wall of switchbacks, rather than sitting on the brakes all the way down. Having planned, researched and dreamed about this drive for several years, we were both—well, perhaps more me—excited and raring to go. Starting with the forested Stelvio National Park, we arrive at the base of a large grey granite mountain where the hairpins begin. The vista changes as we climb and the switchbacks start to mount beneath us, seemingly vertically like a ladder propped against a wall. With increased altitude more and more mountain peaks come into view, stretching off into the distance. In late spring the last vestiges of snow remain in shaded gullies and the odd waterfall tumbles down. Slopes of rockslides indicate where avalanches have occurred, and glaciers are receding.
It’s a cloudless blue sky as my wife and I leave our hotel in Prato allo Stelvio, an alpine town in northern Italy. It’s 8 a.m. and we’re getting an early start so we can beat the traffic to the northwestern entrance of the Stelvio Pass since we know that passing is difficult, and I’ve promised my wife a lesson in
Volume XIX, Number 04
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