6 roads · Italy

Best driving roads in Italy

6 famous driving roads in Italy, each called corner by corner by Turini’s pace-note engine. On the routes here, the Passo di Giau has the most hairpins (53); the Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road is the longest at 40.7 km; the Passo di Gavia has the biggest climb, about 1,420 m in all. They are listed by the number of hairpins Turini calls, then by length: a count from the map, not a verdict on which road is best.

Italy, by hairpins

1. 1
   Passo di GiauSP638 · Italy19.8 km · 182 calls · 53 hairpins · ↑690 m

   The Selva di Cadore side alone has 29 hairpins and three avalanche galleries; this route crosses both sides.

2. 2
   Stelvio PassPasso dello Stelvio · SS38 · Italy15.7 km · 165 calls · 47 hairpins · ↑1,350 m

   At 2,757 m it is the second-highest paved pass in the Alps, and the Prad side is known for its numbered hairpins, 48 of them, stacked one above another up the mountainside.

3. 3
   Passo SellaSS242 · Italy22.4 km · 227 calls · 32 hairpins · ↑800 m

   Driving the four passes around the Sella group, Sella, Gardena, Campolongo and Pordoi, is known as the Sella Ronda, and in winter the same circuit is a well-known ski tour.

4. 4
   Passo di GaviaSS300 · Italy32.0 km · 334 calls · 29 hairpins · ↑1,420 m

   It is a regular climb in the Giro d’Italia and sometimes the race’s highest point.

5. 5
   Timmelsjoch High Alpine RoadSS44bis · Austria / Italy40.7 km · 351 calls · 27 hairpins · ↑920 m

   Lorries and trailers are banned, so it stays far quieter than the Brenner Pass nearby.

6. 6
   Amalfi Coast RoadSS163 · Italy15.4 km · 212 calls · 14 hairpins · ↑430 m

   The whole road runs about 50 km along the coast, with bend after bend and one narrow lane each way.

Counts are from Turini’s pace-note engine on the route shown on each road’s page, which is often one side or one stretch of the road. Climbs come from terrain data.

What the numbers mean

Each corner is called as a direction and a grade from 1 (tightest) to 6 (nearly straight). Hairpins are the turns that double back on themselves. The counts come straight from Turini’s engine reading the OpenStreetMap road, the same calls you hear in the car. The climb (↑) is the height gained over the route, from terrain data. New to it? Read how to read pace notes.

Always drive within the law, the conditions and what you can see. Turini tells you what the map says; the road is what counts.

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