From Bellinzona I had to face a long 10 percent climb to Mont ceneri and being well rested I was just about able to manage it knowing I had only 40 or so miles to cycle today to lake como. It was Sunday morning and there were a lot of bikes on the road and in this Italian part of Switzerland many passed me shouting 'ciao'. The traffic was light in the city of Lugano as I weaved my way through the centre following the sign for St Moritz and down to the lake shore of lake lugano. There were many tourists along the lake and some out swimming, then the road climbed over Mont Bre and down to the Italian border.
This was a very attractive road along the northern shore of the lake but very narrow and I had to block the traffic from passing in dangerous places. In Porlezza the main road was tunneled and I was diverted down a track which had a small rugged tunnel I had all to myself.
The drop down to Mennagio was very steep with hairpins and spectacular views over lake como though it was too dangerous to stop. I arrived at the Hotel Britannia in Cadennabia a few miles away around 12 and it was nice the lady at reception was expecting me and enquired about the trip. The bike was now parked up for the week apart from one trip up to the Madonna del Ghissalo.
The rest of the week was spent with the family lazily lying in the sun, guided day trips to Milan and St Moritz by coach, and taking advantage of the all inclusive package at the Britannia where most of the residents were middle aged British.
43 miles
On the Thursday after having a few days rest I set out to visit the cyclists church, Madonna del Ghisallo. First I had to get the ferry across to Bellagio and even though it was early morning the heat was intense, at least I was not carrying any luggage. On the ferry was also a Dutch cyclist planning the same trip and I noticed he had triple chainrings on his carbon racer.
The climb to the Ghisallo is about 10k from Bellagio the first three miles 14 percent gradient, after this levelling off for a mile or two then the last couple of miles about 12 percent. The climb is featured in some Italian races including the Tour of Lombardy and giro d'italia. The church is crammed with racing bikes and memorabalia mostly of former Italian star cyclists, also others like Hinault and Merkz. Adjacent to the church is a cycling museum which traces the history of cycling and racing in particular displaying old racing bikes with wooden rim wheels right through to the latest carbon featherweights. There were many cyclists around and on the way down I would meet them on every hairpin; cycling is a popular sport here with 700 cycling clubs in the province of Lombardy alone holding 1200 races each year in this region.
Map and more photos
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