Forty-Eight Numbered Hairpins to the Roof of the Italian Alps

The Passo dello Stelvio (Stilfser Joch) is the most famous mountain road in the world: 2,757 meters (9,045 ft) at the summit, the second-highest paved pass in the Alps, and on its northern flank a wall of 48 numbered hairpins stacked so theatrically that the view from above looks like a drawing. Engineer Carlo Donegani built it between 1820 and 1825 for the Austrian Empire, to link Vienna's Lombard territories over the shoulder of the Ortler, and the alignment has barely changed in two centuries. Cycling canonised it (the Stelvio is the Giro d'Italia's recurring rooftop, its highest crossing honoured as the Cima Coppi), and television made it a driver's pilgrimage when Top Gear crowned it the greatest driving road on Earth. The truth is better balanced: the Bormio side is the driver's climb, a sinuous sequence of galleries and open sweepers up the Braulio gorge, while the Prato side's hairpin ladder is the icon you photograph. At the top: bratwurst stalls, a small village of souvenir huts, glacier views, and the smug satisfaction of one of motoring's great tick-boxes.

Key Stops

Bormio. A Roman-rooted spa town and the southern base: fuel, coffee in the medieval center, and thermal baths for afterwards. The climb starts immediately at the town's edge.

Bagni Vecchi di Bormio. Just above town on the pass road, thermal baths used since antiquity, with a steaming outdoor pool hanging over the valley: the definitive post-drive reward.

The Braulio gorge and galleries. The Bormio side's signature stretch: rock galleries, waterfalls, and stacked switchbacks up a shadowed canyon that feels carved rather than built. Watch for cyclists mid-lane in the tunnels.

Umbrail Pass junction. A few bends below the summit, the highest paved crossing in Switzerland (2,501 m) drops away toward Val Müstair: the makings of a superb loop back via Santa Maria and the Ofen Pass; border formalities are minimal but carry your passport.

Stelvio summit (2,757 m). Park and walk: the huts sell sausages and memorabilia, the Garibaldi obelisk crowns the saddle, and the short path toward the Rifugio Garibaldi (the "Tibet Hut") gives the postcard angle down all 48 hairpins.

The 48 tornanti. Each hairpin on the Prato side is numbered on a stone marker, counting down as you descend. The upper dozen, laid across an open scree face with the Ortler's glaciers opposite, are the finest engineered bends in the Alps.

Franzenshöhe. The historic staging inn at bend 22, where coach horses were once swapped: now the natural coffee pause with the wall of hairpins framed above.

Trafoi. A tiny village with an outsized view of the Ortler (3,905 m, once the Austro-Hungarian Empire's highest peak) and the home slopes of ski legend Gustav Thöni. The short detour to the Tre Fontane pilgrimage shrine is worth the fifteen minutes.

Gomagoi and Stilfs. An Austro-Hungarian road fortress squeezed into the gorge, and the perched village that gives the pass its German name.

Prato allo Stelvio (Prad am Stilfserjoch). The northern terminus in the apple orchards of the Vinschgau valley. The walled medieval town of Glorenza (Glurns), one of the smallest cities in the Alps, sits ten minutes away and makes the perfect finish.

Driving Tips

Check that the pass is open before you commit. The Stelvio typically opens between late May and mid-June and closes with the first serious snow in late October or November; outside that window the road is gated. Even in July, storms can shut it for hours.

Start at dawn to have the road to yourself. From mid-morning in season the pass carries a slow parade of cyclists, motorbikes, camper vans, and buses; the magic hours are before 9 am and after 5 pm, which also deliver the best light on the hairpins.

Treat cyclists as fellow traffic, not obstacles. Thousands climb daily in summer, wobbling at walking pace on 10 percent grades: pass wide and patient, and expect them mid-lane through the dark galleries on the Bormio side.

Mind the Bike Day closure. One day each summer (usually late August or early September) the road closes entirely to motor traffic for the Stelvio Bike Day; check the date when planning.

Use engine braking on the descent. Forty-eight hairpins will cook brakes that are ridden all the way down: shift low, brake firmly and briefly before each bend, and give the pads a rest at Franzenshöhe.

Expect winter at the top in any month. The summit can be near freezing in August, with snowbanks lining the road into July: bring a jacket for the summit stroll and treat early-season mornings as potential ice.

Give way sensibly on the hairpins. Uphill traffic has priority on narrow Alpine bends, and buses need the full width of a tornante: hold back at the previous marker rather than meeting one mid-corner.

Make it a loop if you have the day. Stelvio up from Bormio, Umbrail down to Santa Maria, and back over the Ofen Pass once made the classic circuit; alternatively pair it with Livigno and the Foscagno, or continue east down the Vinschgau to Merano.

For more information visit: Bormio Tourism (Official Site)