Passo dello Spluga (Chiavenna → Splügen) - Italy

Fifty-eight hairpins. Two countries. One of the oldest passes in the Alps — the Romans dragged their roads over this very notch, and the stone villages on both sides still look like they belong to another century. From Chiavenna the SS36 slides up the Valle San Giacomo, the mountains closing in around you, chestnut forests giving way to larch as the river drops away below. Switzerland announces itself with immaculate hairpins — the San Bernardino route turns off, but you climb on, and the pass gate at 2,114 metres greets you with wind, snow poles, and the kind of view that makes you whisper. You are standing on the watershed of Europe: behind you the water runs to the Mediterranean, before you to the Black Sea. Cross into Switzerland and descend to Splügen — one of the most beautiful villages in the Alps, wooden sgraffito houses huddled under the pass they served for a thousand years. Then follow the young Rhine north through the Rheinwald: a valley so deep and quiet that the river is the loudest thing in it. Medels, Hinterrhein, the Roffla gorge — the road is a continuous gentle curve through landscapes that never repeat themselves — until Sils im Domleschg and the vineyards above Thusis tell you the journey is done. On a bike it's a day you'll measure in grins per kilometre; in a car it's the perfect Alpine crossing — dramatic where it should be, peaceful where you need it. Take the old road. Take your time. The Romans were onto something.