Stelvio Pass and on into Switzerland - Shaken, not Stirred?

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passo dello stelvio (stilfserjoch) and on into Switzerland - Shaken, not Stirred?

I guess there are other easier ways to get from Italy to Switzerland, and I hadn’t really mentioned these to Jen. She didn’t seem to mind the idea of going over the Stilvio Pass. I would have been keener myself if it wasn’t for the rain…..

The Stelvio pass? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelvio_Pass
It is the second highest (just) mountain pass in the alps - over 2700m, made up of 48 hairpin bends. I had quickly looked at some motorcyclist blogs about the pass, and as with Nürburgring you kind of wish you didn’t. If you don’t like tight hair pin bends on extremely narrow roads on near vertical slopes don’t go. If you like that sort of thing and looking at squads of expensive Italian motors thrashing up and down the mountain it is the place to be. It is also rumoured to be a scene in the new Bond film. I am glad had made good time in the morning travelling from Slovenia. We arrived at the foot of the mountain for lunch - yes pizza again at about 2pm, giving us time to get over the mountain before dark.

The trip up and over the mountain was actually pretty straight forward the worst part was the fist two of the 48 bends, these seem to be the narrowest, and poorest road condition (yes really!). I only had a problem with one oncoming car who just didn’t want to share, other than that the driving was good. The rain in the early part of the climb was actually a good influence; everyone seemed to be driving pretty carefully. Counting the numbered corners you are at the top in no time. The view at the top is bizarre in what can only be described as a rocky moonscape in howling winds and cloud. The road looks like a ribbon, completely intangible from where you just were. There are various hotdog stands and tourists shops on top and of course a pub. Its one thing to go up by motorised vehicle, but the number of mad cyclists up there is disturbing. We still had a way to go, so we continued on, we took an unplanned diversion on the way down on a side road that was gravel, but ended up quite a good shortcut (Passo Del Umbro) to where we needed to be in Switzerland, a few kms of this was gravel, which combined with corners isn’t great, but the F650 likes this sort of thing, no worries. We then crossed the Ofenpass a much quicker series of sweeping corners, and looked for somewhere to stay in Zemez.

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Photos

passo dello stelvio (stilfserjoch)
The road from above. Scary to know that we overtook both busses and cyclists

Stelvio National Park
Enjoying a real Italian Espresso

Stelvio National Park
The Alps

Stelvio National Park
This is what my choice of veichel would have been

passo dello stelvio (stilfserjoch)
The spooky cabin at the top

passo dello stelvio (stilfserjoch)
dog scared of the height....

passo dello stelvio (stilfserjoch)
... but persuaded by owner

passo dello stelvio (stilfserjoch)
Bikers resting at the top buying crap from both Italians, Germans and Swiss.