Italy and Switzerland: A Week in the Alps

Seven nights from Milan on a rented bike, built around four Swiss passes in a single day and the Stelvio at the end of it.

Milan starts it with a central hotel in a city that runs on fashion and design and has a cathedral that took almost six hundred years to finish. The first big day then crosses four of the best known Swiss passes, among them the Sustenstrasse with its glacier views and the Furka, which climbs to 2,429 metres and was used for the Aston Martin chase in Goldfinger, filmed there in the 1960s.

Lake Garda follows, where the mountains drop straight into deep blue water, with the Strada della Forra on the itinerary: a narrow road cut through a gorge above the lake, also used by the Bond production team, and so tight in places that two cars cannot pass. Italian villa and cafe culture fills the rest of the stop.

The Stelvio closes the trip, with sixty switchbacks counted across both sides, a summit at 2,757 metres and a reputation that puts it at the top of most lists of the best roads in the world. The price is quoted per rider. Seven nights and a fly-in start make this the shortest way to ride the great Alpine passes properly, with no transit days at either end, and for a rider with a single week of leave it is the most concentrated trip in the operator’s European range. The trade is that the bike is a rental rather than a familiar machine, which on roads like these is worth thinking about.