Piet has a short bucketlist, with only a few wishes. One of these was a trip to Bormio, to cycle up the mythical Stelvio and Gavia cols, well known from the Giro d'Italia. This year was a perfect storm to tick these off: firstly Mary planned to join Paulien for a few days on the Via Francigena in northwestern Italy (see next post), and secondly Piet had trained a lot for L'Etape du Tour, and was in his best physical shape since years.
We booked a one room apartment in Bormio, a small, pleasant town in the centre of an active outdoor holiday area, with an excellent cycling infrastructure, and many wintersport facilities. It is a great location for hikes and bike rides, and the start for the long climbs up to the Stelvio and Gavia passes. It took 7 hours to drive down from our house in France.
The first day we did a short hike near our apartment, and after lunch Piet cycled up to Passo dello Stelvio. Unfortunately it was a Sunday, and very nice weather, so Piet had to share the road with hundreds and hundreds of motorbikes and many tourists in cars. At the top (2758 m!) it was a real circus, with souvenir shops, parking areas, hotels, restaurants and a huge skilift. The descent was not a lot of fun either, with motorbikes whizzing around him, and several dangerous tunnels. Mary cycled up part of the col, and turned around at the first tunnel.
The next day we hiked around Bormio, and in the afternoon we cycled together to the Torre di Fraele, a spectacular, quiet road, with many, many hairpins. The following morning Piet left early for the Passo di Gavia, with the plan to do a loop including the Passo del Mortirolo. The road to Passo di Gavia was quiet and scenic, and at the pass there was just a parking and a small restaurant. After a short stop Piet descended the other way, ending up in the Oglio valley. Here the climb to Passo del Mortirolo started, a another famous (and steep) Giro d'Italia col. From there Piet descended back to the Bormio valley, and slowly climbed back to the apartment, completing 110 km and 3000 m of height difference. And adding two ticks on his bucketlist! Mary and Pippin had a more leisurely day, with another nice hike near Bormio.
The final day we drove back up to the Gavia, to do a beautiful hike high in the mountains, with very few people around. The next morning we packed everything and drove a few hours west to Pont St Martin (very Italian, despite the French name), north of Turin. Here we met Paulien, a friend of ours who was walking the Via Francigena.
