Stelvio National Park

National Park Established In 1935 Across Lombardy, Trentino And South Tyrol, One Of The Largest Protected Areas In The Alps, Containing The Ortles And The Stelvio Pass Road · Bormio, Lombardy

One of the largest protected areas in the Alps, straddling Lombardy, Trentino and South Tyrol and running up to the Ortles at nearly three thousand nine hundred metres, with glaciers on it that are skiable in July. What made it famous is a road. The Stelvio Pass climbs to 2,758 metres on forty-eight numbered hairpins stacked up one wall of the valley, built by the Austrians in the 1820s, and it is on every list of the great driving and cycling roads in the world; the Giro d'Italia goes over it and the crowds on the day are enormous. Around that one road the park is genuinely wild: ibex and red deer in thousands, golden eagles and reintroduced bearded vultures, a bear or two wandering in from Trentino, and long marked trails that see almost nobody. The pass is shut by snow for roughly half the year, which governs any plan you make. Check whether it is open before you drive anywhere near it, and go early in the day, because by mid-morning in August the road is a queue.

Via Roma 26, Bormio, Lombardy, 23032, Italy

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED, and the park itself has none: it is open country with free access. THE STELVIO PASS ROAD IS THE REAL TIMETABLE - closed by snow for roughly half the year, typically November to late May or June, and it can shut again in a summer storm. Summer glacier skiing runs a short season with morning-only lifts. Park visitor centres and refuges open with the season, roughly late June to September. Bormio's thermal baths open year-round. Check the pass status, not an opening time.

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