A hundred-kilometre ring for enjoying the pleasure of driving along the curves of three iconic passes. Among breathtaking landscapes, cult places and a very, very charming surprise at the end.
Words Alessandro Giudice
Photography Alessandro Barteletti
Video Andrea Ruggeri
Swiss Grand Tour is a project to discover itineraries driving classic Alfa Romeo cars, in partnership with Astara, the distributor and importer of the Brand in Switzerland.
Canton | Ticino, Uri, Valais |
Route | from Airolo and returns |
Distance | 100 km |
Travel time | 2h |
Driving pleasure | 5/5 |
Panorama | 5/5 |
While the summer is the season of sunshine, mild temperatures and brightly coloured nature, in Switzerland it is also the time in which the many passes crossing the huge Swiss mountain ranges are open to traffic. This is reason enough for placing the Alpine peaks at the centre of the fifth itinerary of the Alfa Romeo Swiss Grand Tour, a route that, now customary, is covered by a historical star of the Arese-based car manufacturer.
[click to watch the video]
This time, the choice fell on the Montreal, a masterpiece of style designed by Marcello Gandini for Bertone and equipped with an extraordinary V8 engine with mechanical injection that ideally combines this elegant sports car with the iconic 33 Stradale. Driving the car with punch and precision is Valérie Navez, accompanied by her son Alexandre, an authentic “Alfa Romeo addict” despite his young age. With them on board, the Montreal climbed the St. Gotthard, the Furka and the Nufenen passes, which have always been popular with drivers for both the driving pleasure they offer and the uniquely beautiful views that can be admired from the top.
Three passes for three cantons, the crossings of which also represent both the natural and administrative borders, distributed along a ring itinerary that starts from Airolo, in Ticino, and returns there after a hundred or so kilometres through Uri and Valais. Roads that saw the more understated yet essential presence of another four-wheeled Biscione star: a white Tonale in the Veloce version, a practical and compact SUV which makes the ideal support vehicle for shooting photos and videos on the move. The whole team set out from Airolo on a beautiful sunny day with a cobalt sky and very little traffic. The spirit adopted to face the route is instantly clear in the choice of road to reach St. Gotthard: not the fast, futuristic “new” road but the 24 hairpin bends of the Tremola, the narrow and arduous road, considered to be “Switzerland's longest road monument”, that climbs for 13 kilometres to the 2091 metres of the pass.
This thrilling route is made unique not only by the cobbles covering the bends, it is an authentic dive into the past that however demands special care in the rain, as the porphyry blocks guarantee a less-than-perfect grip for the tyres. At the top of the climb, a large clearing offers rest for tourists, and once also replenishment for travellers and carriages (in fact you can still travel up to the pass on a mail coach drawn by five horses). Here you can take a break at the travellers’ hospice or have a look round the St. Gotthard Museum, even though precedence should be given to the spectacular natural views, admired sitting on the edge of the small Piazza Lake that occupies part of the pass.
Having got used to the Tremola, the Cantonale 2 that descends beyond the pass seems almost a motorway. After the small San Carlo Lake, along a straight road you will see a high-relief sculpture of a bull, the symbol of the canton Uri, which starts right here. The route descends as far as Hospental, then turns left along the Cantonale 19 towards Furkapass. A long, broad and scenic stretch of the road runs half-way along the mountains, parallel to the tracks of the Briga-Andermatt train line. The road becomes significantly narrower when it starts to climb towards the pass, with charming views of mountains covered in greenery, waterfalls and stone chalets, as well as a few areas where the snow manages to resist even the summer temperatures. For James Bond fans, a sequence from Goldfinger was filmed here on the bends just after Realp, with 007's Aston Martin DB5 duelling with a Mustang driven, of course, by a beautiful lady. With the same attitude as Valérie, who tackles even the narrowest bends naturally, nonchalantly using the Montreal’s gears and steering wheel as if it were a city car.
The Furka Pass has a huge esplanade that focuses the attention of those arriving on the valleys below, distracting them from the extraordinary conformation of the rock face accompanying the road, a natural masterpiece behind those admiring the view. The broad, well-kept road accompanying the descent over the pass, which takes us into the canton Valais, is nothing like the climb. And here, on a left-hand bend, we have a view of the old (and decadent) Hotel Belvedere, an authentic icon for all driving enthusiasts who love to have their picture taken with their special car coming round the bend. Needless to say, taking a photo here is rather complicated, given the crowds of selfie fans, but if you can take one the result is usually worth the effort.
The descent from Furka ends in Gletsch, a small Alpine village that is not only the ideal place for admiring the Rhône Glacier but also home to the station where the steam train climbing up to the pass starts from. At the first crossroads in the town, on the right, the road leads up to another crossing, the Grimsel Pass, towards the Bernese Alps: an itinerary that crosses a wilderness of gorges, dams and mountain lakes that we promise to explore another time. Our route on the other hand continues along the main road through a long valley bottom that, passing through Oberwald, reaches Ulrichen, where the Glacier Express, the railway line (reputed to be the “slowest express train in the world”) that joins Zermatt and St. Moritz, passes.
And from here, the road takes us back to Ticino across the Nufenen Pass. But not before having taken a stroll among the wooden houses in the perfectly preserved ancient Valais village, an authentic open-air museum. The road climbing towards the pass is spectacular, both in its own right and for the landscapes it runs through. The wide bends climbing towards the pass, Switzerland's highest, offer a natural spectacle framed between the 3000 metres of Pizzo Gallina, on the left, and the 2866 metres of the Nufenstock, on the right. While the Nufenen Pass offers all the simplicity of an Alpine crossing, with the climb that flattens on the peak and descends towards the other slope immediately afterwards, what makes the difference here are the unique details. Starting from the 2478 metres altitude, looking over a vast panorama facilitated by its dominant position. And then, a surprise meeting, just a few metres from the road near a small lake, a large community of dozens of ibexes, grazing, fighting each other with their long horns, watching the people photographing them with no apparent fear, in an absolutely extraordinary symbiosis of humans and nature.
This is the last “upper mountain thrill” in our itinerary before taking the long and practically straight road down towards Airolo, through Val Bedretto. Accompanied by the spring waters of the river that originates on the Nufenen and which gave its name to the canton from which this great adventure set out, the Ticino.
THE COLLECTOR: Navez Family
The "Montreal"
For us, Alfa Romeo is a family history, which began in the 1970s with my grandfather, who had a penchant for the Alfetta, and my grandmother, who drove an Alfasud. They handed down their passion to my father, who gave his future wife a Spider 2000 as a wedding present. The Montreal we took to the Swiss passes was made on 5 December 1974 and sold by the Swiss Alfa Romeo dealer in Agno, in the canton of Ticino, and was then sold to its owner, in San Gallen. The Montreal was the car my grandfather dreamed of, and my father bought it in his memory. Although my grandfather died a few years ago, when my father drives it he imagines having his father sitting happily by his side - Alexandre Navez.
The Modern Alfas
I have always been an Alfa Romeo fan. I love classic cars, with their timeless charm supported by technical and style solutions that created an authentic international legend. Today's Alfa Romeos maintain their distinctive and recognisable style and the top models, bearing the cloverleaf, also offer performances worthy of the brand. I would like to become a designer and give the Alfa Romeos of the future the character that made them unique in the past. An operation that has to look ahead, without seeking to copy the classic style codes, because the Alfa Romeo spirit has always looked to innovation and has to continue to do so - Alexandre Navez.
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