
The historic paved road to Brocon Pass
Italy, europe
27.8 km
1,616 m
moderate
Year-round
Passo Brocon is this incredible high mountain pass sitting pretty at 1,616m (5,302ft) in the heart of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in northern Italy. Nestled in the stunning Dolomites, it's the scenic connector between the Vanoi valley and the Tesino plateau – and yeah, there's actually a restaurant and hotel right at the summit, which is pretty handy!
The pass has some serious history too. During both world wars, it was a major strategic location, and the road itself was carved out between 1905 and 1908. Pretty impressive engineering for the time!
Now, here's the fun part: the 27.8 km (17.27 miles) drive from Castello Tesino to Ronco-Chiesa is completely paved (Strada Provinciale 79, if you want to get technical), and it's absolutely gorgeous. Fair warning though – it gets narrow in spots and the gradient cranks up to a gnarly 15.2% on some of the steeper sections. But those views? Totally worth navigating the twisty bits. This is exactly the kind of Alpine road trip that'll have you pulling over constantly just to snap photos.
Where is it?
The historic paved road to Brocon Pass is located in Italy (europe). Coordinates: 41.9551, 13.7510
Road Details
- Country
- Italy
- Continent
- europe
- Length
- 27.8 km
- Max Elevation
- 1,616 m
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Coordinates
- 41.9551, 13.7510
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