HOTEL VOLTA CANZO - Percorsi in bici da strada e MTB

Description: Morterone is located at 1065 m AMSL on the oriental versant of Mount Resegone. It is really a small town, with very few inhabitants (35 persons, 16 families and 171 houses, of which the greatest part uninhabited, and a density of a person for each 2,5 squared kilometres). Thank to this characteristics Morterone is the smallest town in Italy and in Europe. If you want to reach Morterone you have to depart from Ballabio, in the Valsassina Valley, and to go up through a fantastic 16 km long road with many panoramic points and a lot of hairpin curves. Even if the slope isn’t excessive, the small transversal dimension of the road, the nearly total absence of automotive traffic and the really infinite number of hairpin bends, will give you the sensation to cover an alpine pass. From the built-up area of Ballabio the first 11 kilometres of the road are totally characterized by a constant slope of about 5%. The total difference in height (Lecco-Morterone) is of about 860 m. After this first part you’ll find a sort of pass and from this point the road alternates climbs and flattish parts. If you want to reach the centre of the town, the last hundreds of meters are characterized by a descent. This tour, differently from the other ones, foresees a way back home road that coincides with the one of gone.

Road Book: At the beginning of the proposed tour you have to head for the Segrino Lake (southwards), and you’ll have to go along its shores until its ending. When you’ll reach the crossroads you have to follow the indication to Pusiano. Turning on the left following this indication, you’ll keep go along the lake shores until the roundabout near the locality called “Punt di Nacc”, where it is necessary to keep the left towards Pusiano. This country, that you’ll reach after a descent characterized by a low slope and by some hairpin curves, is placed on the coast of the Pusiano Lake, also nominated in the famous Segantini verses with the name of “Eupili me”. Here it is necessary to turn on the left at the traffic light and follow the indications for Lecco. It’s very important that, once you’ve overstepped the built-up area of Suello, in the locality called “Borima” and before entering the two-lane highway SS36 (in which it is forbidden to travel by bicycle) you take on the right the cycle track that goes on near the shores of another lake: the Annone and Oggiono Lake. When you’ll arrive to the end of the cycle track it is possible to take the old road to Lecco, passing under the bridge that leads to the entrance of the modern tunnel that crosses the Mount Barro. The road you’ve taken with its two lanes continues until the doors of the city of Lecco, where you’ll find a large roundabout and the bridge that allows you to cross the water strip that delimits the border between the Como Lake and the Adda River. Crossing this bridge you’ll enter in the city of Lecco, where it is necessary to go straight on until the traffic light. Here you have to turn on the right, following the indication for the railway station. When you’ll be near to the station (Via S.Sassi) it is necessary to turn left in order to turn around the station square taking Via A.Volta until the roundabout, where it is necessary to turn right and to take Via Matteotti. From this point it is enough to follow the indications for Valsassina and they will carry to you, crossroads after crossroads, to exit from the city and to take the climb that goes up until reaching Ballabio. As soon as you reach this town, which marks the beginning of the Valsassina Valley, you’ll find the crossroads for Morterone. The indications will make you leave the main road ant turn on your right. We point out that in the same locality you can find the beginning of the climb that leads to the locality called “Pian Dei Resinelli” (on the left if you look northwards), a fantastic tableland. From Ballabio the road to Morterone is only one and it is not possible to make mistakes. Once you’ll reach the small town among the mountains, for your way back home it is sufficient to cover the same road of the gone, until Lecco. We point out that in Ballabio it is necessary to take the old road that goes down to Lecco passing through the hamlet called “Laorca” in order to avoid the modern two-lane road that leads to Lecco too, but with long not accessible to the bicycles galleries. Once you’ll enter in Lecco it is necessary to head for the Lake and the bridge on the Adda River crossed before. At the roundabout after the bridge you’ll have to turn to the right and to take the two-lane road following the indications to Erba. Such road has to be followed until its end, that coincides with the entrance in the SS36. You have to follow this highway for the short part (allowed to bikes) that is necessary to reach the exit to Erba, near Suello. From this point you’ll have to always go straight on, crossing the towns Suello and Cesana Brianza. In Pusiano you’ll find a traffic light, where it is necessary to turn to the right, towards Canzo.