DroneRidersClub's video: Passo Spluga - Splugenpass by drone and motorcycle DroneRidersClub 002

[ http://droneriders.club/drc002-passo-spluga-splugen-pass/ ] Magnificent views, an escape from Summer heat, a lovely alpine lake, a massive dam and a road perfect for our motorcycles. This is Passo Spluga. DRC Score for Passo Spluga View: 9/10 – it’s truly the heart of the Alps. Surface: 7/10 – decent enough to enjoy it. Turns: 9/10 – Swiss side is a true rollercoaster experience on two wheels. Danger: 8/10 – hairpins in tunnels carved inside the rock? Yay! Been-there-alone-factor: 4/10 – Car – Car – Caravan – Car… Our journey today starts in the town of Chiavenna, famous for her Crotti, a mix between caves and cellars built to exploit natural streams of cool air coming from cracks in the stone, an ingenious ancient times version of our fridges. From Chiavenna you can choose two roads, both perfect for a motorcycle tourer: proceed north-east to reach Passo Maloja and St. Moritz or go North towards Passo Spluga. The road, wide enough to let you give some peeks to the surrounding panorama, will quickly bring you through some hairpins to the village of Campodolcino and its artificial lake. Be sure to fill up there as there will be no more petrol stations from here to Switzerland! Right after Campodolcino the road gets from good to stunning: it was built in 1821 by the Austrians out of nowhere, on the side of the mountain basically challenging the force of gravity. Ten steep hairpins, some of them carved inside the rock through tiny tunnels, leading you to the Pianazzo waterfall. Keep going until you find the tunnel to Madesimo, ignore it and keep left towards the pass. Pine trees now are replaced by green pastures and rocks, and slowly the road gets less steep. Behind a turn you will be welcomed by a massive rock dam, with the number MCMXXXI (1931) on its center. Keep going and the wonderful Montespluga lake and the blue of its waters will literally leave you breathless. The road borders the lake until you reach the last Italian village of montespluga: some vacation houses, a couple of restaurants, hotels and a church. Cross it and start riding on the last hairpins among a more and more barren and beautiful landscape until you reach the Pass! There’s absolutely nothing on the Italian side, except an open border checkpoint, while a couple of hundred meters beyond it, at the Swiss border, you’ll find a restaurant named Berghaus. From here, the road goes quickly down to the Splugen valley via 14 narrow hairpins. Stop your motorcycle at the bottom and turn around to check what kind of road you just completed, a sort of geometric painting on the side of the valley! You can’t call it a ride without some proper local food I told you about the Crotti at the beginning of the article. I chose Crotto al Prato for your lunch break, as it’s one of the best ones! Pizzoccheri, Piota (a local barbeque on stone), cheese and biscuits for € 17. Keep riding, keep exploring!