Ride the Highest Pass in the Eastern Alps—Stelvio Pass, Italy

The Stelvio Pass is one of the most challenging and exhilarating motorcycle roads in the world to ride. It’s absolutely worth a trip to Italy just to wrassle with this beast.

At 9,045 feet, Stelvio Pass is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps and the second highest in all of the Alps. That said, it loses out to the Col de l'Iseran in France by a measly 23 feet, so it’s not like you can get much higher than this.

Located on the border between Italy and Switzerland, the pass connects the town of Stilfs (Stelvio in Italian) to the Swiss village of Santa Maria Val Müstair through the intervening Umbrail Pass. The road over Stelvio Pass might only be 13 miles long—but what miles those are.

You’ll encounter roughly 70 extremely tight hairpins on the Alpine slopes as you traverse the pass. The majority of them are on the Stilfs side of the pass, but there’s still plenty of one to be had on the other slope as well.

Over those switchbacks, you’ll gain roughly 5,000 feet in altitude over very steep climbs. The average gradient on the road hovers around 7.5 degrees, but it reaches 14 degrees in the steepest sections.