Passo dello Stelvio
Stelvio Pass
Length
24.3km
Elevation
2,758m above sea level
Hairpins
48 numbered hairpins
48 hairpins. No debate.
The Map
The Stelvio Pass road was completed in 1825 under the direction of Carlo Donegani, an Austrian military engineer working for the Habsburg Empire. Its purpose was strategic — a reliable mountain crossing between Lombardy and the Austrian Tyrol. He succeeded beyond any reasonable expectation. The road Donegani built is essentially unchanged. Forty-eight numbered hairpins ascending in a sequence of controlled improbability, stacked above one another in a switchback grid visible from a single viewpoint below. It looks drawn. Impossible. There it is.
The Approach
You come from Bormio in summer. The valley is wide and warm, the Adda river following the road. Then the road narrows and tips upward — gently at first, then with increasing conviction. The treeline thins. The hairpins begin. Each one arrives before you expect it, sharper than memory suggested. At 2,000 metres the air changes quality. By 2,400 metres you are in cloud half the mornings of the season. The summit, when it appears, feels both inevitable and impossible.
The Ascent
Hairpin 48 is the first one — confusingly numbered from the top, so 48 is at the bottom, and you count down as you climb. By hairpin 35 the gradient is consistent at 7–9%. By hairpin 20 you are in the high section where the road clings to near-vertical rock face and the valley floor is vertigo-inducing below. The key section — hairpins 15 through 3 — is where the road briefly straightens between corners, allowing genuine third-gear momentum before diving into the next compression. Hairpin 1. The summit. Silence.
“I've driven roads all over the world. Nothing else comes close. Nothing.”
— Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear, Season 11
History
The Stelvio was a stage in the Giro d'Italia from 1953 onwards and remains one of cycling's most feared climbs. In motorsport, it featured in the Mille Miglia as a route section. Jeremy Clarkson drove it in a Ferrari 599 GTB for Top Gear's 2008 season and declared it "the greatest driving road in the world." The debate was brief. No one disagreed.
What to Drive Here
Practical Notes
Open June–late October depending on snowfall. July and August see significant tourist traffic — arrive before 8am or after 6pm for an uncrowded ascent. No fuel available on the pass itself. Fill up in Bormio or Prato allo Stelvio. The descent toward Prad is equally rewarding. Photography: the hairpin viewpoint at hairpin 48 looking upward; come in morning light.
Best Season
June through October
Access
Closed November–May
Surface
Asphalt, moderate width
Country
Italy, Alto Adige / South Tyrol