The Lariano Triangle in a day

Three passes and a spring, the car between stops and two walks.

1. Transfer: Car20 min· From Bellagio, ten kilometres of climbing; the C136 bus goes too

   Morning

   

   The cyclists' sanctuary and their museum

   On the pass, at 754 metres, stands the sanctuary of the Madonna del Ghisallo, proclaimed patron of cyclists by Pius XII in 1949: inside, the bicycles, jerseys and photographs left by champions have gathered one at a time, left as votive offerings rather than set out as a display. Next door, the low glazed building of the Cycling Museum tells the history of racing with the champions' bicycles and the Giro's pink jerseys.

2. Transfer: On foot30 min· From Magreglio, where you leave the car

   Morning

   

   On foot to the source of the Lambro

   From Magreglio, where Santa Marta, a parish since 1613, stands on the square, half an hour on foot by way of Castagneti and up the stream brings you to the Menaresta, at 942 metres: the karst spring of the river that crosses the Brianza, Monza and Milan. Its name says how it works: the water “mena”, flows on, and “resta”, stays. A siphon hidden in the rock fills at intervals until it overflows, then empties.

3. Transfer: Car20 min

   Lunch

   Lunch at Sormano

   Back at the car, the road drops towards the Vallassina and climbs again to Sormano. In the village, Sant'Ambrogio, rebuilt between 1677 and 1715 on an elliptical plan, with a portico in front of its facade.

4. Transfer: On foot10 min

   Afternoon

   

   The walls of the Sormani castle

   Just south of the centre, a plaque on the gateway says these walls stand on the ruins of the castle of the lords of Sormano, of medieval origin and dismantled in 1555 under the Spanish; its stones went into the church and many of the village's houses. Today's battlements and gate tower come from a twentieth-century restoration.

5. Transfer: On foot15 min

   Afternoon

   

   The Muro di Sormano

   Just above the village, from the sign that tells its story, the lane closed to cars climbs to the Colma in four hairpins: about 1,700 metres for almost three hundred of height, 17 per cent on average and ramps over 25. The Giro di Lombardia raced up it from 1960 to 1962 and then dropped it; the heights are written on the tarmac metre by metre, with sayings of cycling's greats. Walk up as far as you like and come back down.

6. Transfer: Car15 min

   Evening

   

   The Colma di Sormano

   By car, on the ordinary road, you reach the pass at 1,124 metres where the Muro ends. An old stone refuge carries the dome of the astronomical observatory, with the planetarium beside it. During visits, when the sky is clear, celestial bodies can be observed through the telescope. From here Bellagio is three quarters of an hour away.