Europe's No.

1 in the Motorcycle & Leisure World »Go to basket

24-hour order hotline: +49 40-734 193 60 0 Products 0.00 €

Home Online Shop Bike database Tips & tricks Outlets Service About us MyLouis Jobs

Tips for DIY mechanics » Tour 7 - Mountains of Trentino Tour Tour length: 250km Travel time: ca. 6h
DIY mechanic manual »
»Back to the tours overview
Tips for buying a used
vehicle »
Touring tips Monte Bondone in the north and Monte Baldo to the east of Lake Garda
Country tips » tower more than 2,000 m above the lake. Together with a visit to
Trentino's capital city Trento and a deetour to Lago di Caldonazzo, they
make a good day trip.
We have planned a nice mountain-ride for ourselves today. Again, we head first
for Arco, which is only a few minutes from Torbole. The historic town centre is a
Service-Box delightful maze of narrow streets lined with shops and bars. Most striking are the
many art nouveau villas, a relic of the second half of the 19th century, when Arco
Foreign customers
was the favourite winter haunt of the Austrian aristocracy. Towering over the old
Gift vouchers
town is the imposing C astello di Arco, the mediaeval castle perched on the highest
C ompetition
rocky peak.
C atalogue
C ontact This is the favourite preserve of climbers at Lake Garda, even if the sheer rock
LouisFunC ard faces strike me as too forbidding to climb up on a rope. Better to roll on by, as my
Louis MasterC ard pillion wholeheartedly agrees. Beyond Arco, a fertile valley - predominantly fruit-
Material lexicon and vegetable-growing - opens up. At Dro we leave the main road and follow the
Newsletter sign to Lago di C avedine, which we then leave behind to our left. Instead, we take
Shipping costs advantage of the first fantastic hairpins of the day to ascend Monte Bondone, the
Payment options local mountain of Trento, Trentino's capital city.

Scenic road on Monte Bandone

No-risk shopping
We're soon at the treeline and at 1,650 m the winding western route leads into a road
Safe payment with a panoramic view over the bare ridge of the mountain range, above which Monte
Right of Return Bondone rises another 400 metres or more. We pass by the highest lift stations, which
testify to the main winter activity on the mountain, and onwards to the eastern flank. It,
Return parts too, is made for bikers.
Secure data transmission But of course not only for bikers: since the mid-1920s the 17 km stretch is where the
Trento-Bondone mountain car race takes place every year, mostly around the first
weekend in July. During the descent to Trento it's not hard for us to imagine the GTIs of
this world drifting up the mountain like a shot. They leave so much rubber on the road
surface that a whole two months later we can still clearly see the tracks.
We take it at a much more leisurely pace downhill and enjoy the fragrance of the dense
forests. At the foot of the mountain, the trees disappear so abruptly that scarcely notice
that we've arrived in Trento. Suddenly we're right in the centre, so we quickly find a
safe parking spot for the bike and explore the administrative centre of the autonomous
region of Trentino by foot.
The centre lies between the C astello del Buonconsiglio - formerly the seat of the prince-
bishops - and the Piazza Duomo with the cathedral and the striking Neptune Fountain.
On this sunny day, the place is teeming with locals and visitors having a good time in
Trento, which in 2007 was voted Italy's most desirable town to live in. With some
difficulty, we manage to find a table on a quiet terrace and enjoy some Trentino
delicacies.
These include all kinds of gnocchi, polenta and lucanica, which is very fine Trentino pork
salami. My pillion samples the local wine while I opt for a cool water. It was the C elts
who first settled on the shores of the Adige, even before the Romans. But the most
important visible heritage of a varied history dates from the Renaissance and Baroque
periods.
After burning off the calories by trekking around town in our biking gear, we heed the
call of the mountains in the early afternoon. We want to ride out to the Passo della Fricca (1,113 m), but squeeze in a quick run to Lago di
C aldonazzo beforehand, which is the second-largest lake in Trentino after Lake Garda. After the pass we do a curvy lap of honour around
Lavarone and travel a flat eastern flank to the Passo del Sommo at 1,350 m in the Folgaria plateau. We almost missed the turn-off to
Terragnolo - which would definitely have been a pity.

26 kilometres of bends and ravines

The next 26 km down to Rovereto is one of the finest stretches in Trentino. The narrow road winds around
the mountains, passing through a succession of dark tunnels hewn out of the bare rock. We meet the odd
biker but cars, thank God, are thin on the ground on this section. From Terragnolo, the ravine to our left is a
sight to behold.
We drive straight through Rovereto, as we've been here already. At Mori we turn off towards Brentonico,
soon leaving the traffic of the Valle d'Adige behind us and tackle the ascent to Monte Baldo. The name
"Monte" is a bit misleading, as Trentino's second local mountain is in fact a whole chain, whose countless
peaks – including a few impressive 2,000 m ones – separate Lake Garda from the Valle d'Adige. The 30 km
ridge offers something special for scientists. Because it was never covered by ice during any ice age,
several primeval species of plants and animals, unique in Europe, managed to survive here. But we're much
more interested in the serpentine mountain roads, for example at the foot of C ima Valdritta, which at 2,218
m is the highest peak in the Baldo range.
But oh no, our road is closed! We originally wanted to make our way into the mountains before Ferrara, but
now we have to ride on to Spiazzi. And here it gets so confusing that, while we do finally make it to the ridge
of the mountain after many kilometres of gravel road, we end up at a chain-locked gate. So, back we go the
whole way.
We have lost a lot of time, of course, but we were kept well entertained by one or two humerous encounters
with the cattle on the mountain. In the end, we have to go as far as C aprino at the southern end of the
range to get to Prada from here because instead of the road along the shore we've got our hearts set on the
ridgeway of Gardesana Orientale.
It's a suspenseful venture, as the road gets ever narrower and the springs on the Varadero get more and
more rattled by potholes. To our right rises a sometimes grey, sometimes red rock face, while to our left we
catch the odd glimpse of the sunset over Lake Garda.
 Dusk very rapidly becomes darkness, and the last very tight hairpins down to C astello di Brenzone demand
all our attention. Then we're finally on the well-lit road along the shore and we bring this exciting day's
excursion to a close with a brisk ride through Malcesine to Torbole.

This tour tip was prepared by the editorial department of ALPENTOURER magazine. ALPENTOURER is published four times a year and
contains information on the most beautiful motorcycle tours between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea. Louis customers can subscribe at
louis.alpentourer.eu for the special price of € 15!

Share tour on Facebook Share tour on Twitter

Tour in pdf format Further maps

»Map in pdf format (1xDIN A4)

»Map in pdf format (4xDIN A4 gekachelt)
»GPS data for Garmin (.zip)
»GPS data for TomTom (.zip)
»Download now (german version), 2.7 MB

Touring set

»Touring set Tour 7 - Mountains of Trentino Tour (.zip), 16.4 MB

External links

»Tour on Google Maps

»Trentino Tourist Office
»Trento Tourist Office
»Further information on ALPENTOURER magazine

One more tip: Day off in Malcesine

A stay at Lake Garda offers plenty to do besides touring. While sporty people can try
windsurfing, climbing or mountain-biking, culture vultures will find plenty of interest
as well. Malcesine, for example, 14 km south of Torbole on the eastern shore of
Lake Garda.
The attractive little town is situated around a rocky outcrop, which has been fortified
since the 6th century. Today, the mediaeval castle C astello Scaligero sits atop the
cliff; it is the most outstanding building, alongside the governor's seat, Palazzo dei
C apitani, and San Stefano church. It's definitely worth taking the cablecar from
Malcesine up to Monte Baldo. There are few better ways to enjoy the splendid view
of Lake Garda – maybe even combined with a mountain walk.
Goethe, who stopped here in 1786 on his legendary "Italian Journey", enthused
about Malcesine. Painters like Gustav Klimt and Edward C ompton immortalised the
place in their works. Their exuberance can be appreciated over an evening meal by
the little harbour, in the shadow of the picturesque castle.
»Further info

C ontact | T&C | Shipping costs | Payment options | Data privacy | Jobs & training | Legal notice