ASSIETTA + COLLE DELLE FINESTRE: The MOST BEAUTIFUL offroad route in the world?
(tranquil music) Some people say that this is the one of the most beautiful roads in the world. Some say that every motorcyclist and bicyclist should drive this road at least once in their life. Find out if they are right and join my adventure to the off-road heaven of the Alps.
Find out if paradise really exists. Ride with me on the famous old military route Strada dell'Assietta and to the connecting mountain pass Colle delle Finestre. (lively music) - We are riding to one of my favorite places to stay now in the whole Alps and it's the perfect base to go explore our next destination, which is Strada dell'Assietta, the Assietta Ridge Road, which is one of the most famous off-road tracks here in the Alps. And the Assietta Road more or less is in the mountains above this hotel. So it's very easy to reach from here.
(lively music) Hotel Il Capricorno sits in the middle of the skiing area of Sauze d'Oulx and is one of my absolute favorite places to stay in the Alps. Overlooking the Susa Valley, Sauze d'Oulx is nicknamed the balcony of the Alps and as well from Hotel Il Capricorno, there are definitely the views to back this claim. But not only the views are what I love this place for, it has fantastic food. The lovely couple who owns it is always up for a chat and the rooms are super cozy. Just in case you want to book this hotel too. Somehow the website is sometimes down.
Don't worry, it still exists. - Good morning from Il Capricorno, which is our nice little hotel here that we have been to already a few times. And we're back here and today we're gonna ride Assietta, which basically starts or ends right above our hotel. (lively music) - Good morning, everyone.
Today I will take you to one of the nicest off-road roads in the Alps that is pretty much doable for everyone. And that's the Assietta Ridge Road and it basically is here above our hotel but we will end here. So we first drive to the valley, go to another mountain pass that is connected to Assietta and then end up at our hotel here again.
(lively music) - Our ride took us down to the Susa Valley and then to the town Susa itself from where our adventure was about to start. But not before we tried to visit a workshop due to my travel partner's rear tire looking pretty bad. - So we just went to this motorcycle workshop here because my travel partner's rear tire doesn't look very good but unfortunately, they're closed all week this week, so we will just go now with his tire.
Little did I know at that time that not the rear tire of my travel partner would cause a lot of problems but my own motorcycle. But let's start where it all began. - The workshop unfortunately was closed but at least this was no big detour because right here at the workshop, you can ride into this road and it is going to take us to the first mountain pass of the day, and the first gravel road of today, and it's called Colle delle Finestre. (lively music) The further the road takes you up the pass, the smaller the asphalt road gets. - Here you have to ride a lot of tiny hairpins. You see that on my GPS here.
And you have to be very careful because the road is super small, so you don't want to meet another vehicle in the turns. I would say if you have never ridden any hairpin road before, this is maybe not where you want to start to practice. But otherwise, it's fine. (lively music) At one point, the asphalt road turns into a dirt road though and here is where the real fun starts.
- This road here to Colle delle Finestre not only gets nice because of the gravel, actually, I don't care if it's a dirt road or not, but soon we will leave the dense forest here and get some better views. And we didn't only get some better views once we left the forest, we by accident as well bumped into these lovely guys that we met a few days ago much further in the south while waiting at the traffic light of a construction on Col de la Madeleine between Italy and France. And they approached us, telling me that they watch my channel.
So guys, I hope you see this episode too. - It's beautiful because it's all the time above 2,000 meters... - [Lea] Yes, we have done it already a few times. - 30, 40 kilometers. Yeah, that is exceptional.
- On the Assietta, there is a place where you have a sign that there is a photographer taking pictures and just after you cross the photographer, you can go away from the Assietta, from the normal road and up into the mountains towards the ski lift, the top station of the ski lift. - [Lea] Cool, nice to meet you again. - Yeah, I think it will be the last time. (Lea chuckling) - [Lea] Take care, guys.
- Thank you. - See you, bye. (upbeat music) - Wow, how crazy and funny are these coincidences that you just meet someone who you met hundreds of kilometers ago and now exactly at this place? Crazy small world. - See, now the view is getting much better.
We are heading up to the top of Colle delle Finestre pass now and there the view will be even more beautiful. And this pass here is, by the way, a pretty easy gravel road, so if you are not sure if you want to drive Assietta Ridge Road, start with this one and if you feel this is already too challenging for you, then maybe practice a bit more before you hit Assietta. - And this, my friends is the top of Colle delle Finestre.
Here as well the asphalt starts again, so you can as well ride to the top of the pass if you are approaching it from the south without even needing to go on a dirt road if you don't want to do that. Colle delle Finestre is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 2,178 meters above sea level, linking Susa Valley and Cisone Valley. The maximum grade of the road is 14% and along itss 18.6 kilometers there are 55 hairpins in total. Colle delle Finestre was already built around 1700 to gain access to the fortresses in the zone, mainly the Forte di Fenestrelle. Today the old military road mostly attracts motorcyclists and bicyclists though.
(inspirational music) - From the top here of Colle delle Finestre, you can see the start of Assietta Road. Yes, right there it is and there we are going. But before we go there, we have a tradition. We always stop at this restaurant between Colle delle Finestre and the Assietta Ridge Road. For me, no ride on Assietta Ridge Road is complete without visiting Rifugio Alpe Pintas, right at the start or end. - Let's try this blueberry cake.
Not bad, what do you think? - Very good. - So this that you see up here is Assietta. - Now full speed ahead, we're going to Assietta. (lively music) - Here you turn on Assietta Road, so from now on, there are about 35 kilometers of nice gravel and fantastic views in front of us. And here you see that there is some signs about road restrictions because indeed, Assietta Road is not open to motorized vehicles every day, and is restricted on some days. During July and August, driving Assietta Ridge Road with a motorized vehicle is forbidden on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 9 AM and 5 PM.
From one of my previous visits, I know though that it's absolutely no problem to enter Assietta after 5 PM on the prohibited days, which guarantees you a lovely evening ride. (inspirational music) - That's the great thing about this road here, you start it and from minute one, you have super amazing views. (inspirational music) - Yes, sometimes you meet other vehicles but it's normally no problem here if you are on a motorcycle because cars mostly drive super slow so it's easy to overtake them. Like this one. And then look at these views again.
Strada dell'Assietta is an old military road on the Italian-French border. The road is entirely over 2,000 meters above the sea level for nearly its complete length of 34 kilometers. Officially, Assietta Ridge Road is called Strada Provinciale 173 del Colle dell'Assietta. And according to the users of the website dangerousroads.com,
it was rated as one of the most spectacular roads in the world. When traveling the Assietta Ridge Road, your ride will take you over eight mountain passes that are between 2,200 meters and 2,585 meters. (inspirational music) Assietta Ridge Road can be traveled in two ways, coming either from the town Sestriere or like we did from Colle delle Finestre. It's an old military road and runs through the Gran Bosco di Salbertrand Park for about 30 kilometers. - Let's continue the ride.
It will take us to the most significant pass of this whole route now. And the one that the whole route got its name from, Colle dell'Assietta. - So this is Colle dell'Assietta after which this road is called. And indeed, you have beautiful views from up here. Colle dell'Assietta has an altitude of 2,472 meters and the road after Assietta Pass takes you to the highest point of the whole ride to an elevation of 2,538 meters.
- And this is the point of the ride where you find out why Assietta is called Ridge Road because you literally ride on the ridge of the mountains. (pensive music) Assietta Ridge Road is an old military Road. It was built by the kingdom of Italy in 1890 with the purpose of allowing the troops to move more quick to the Susa Valley.
But even before Assietta Road was built, the area unfortunately had been used as a battlefield. The Testa dell'Assietta monument that you can visit on Assietta Ridge Road's highest point is memorating a 1747 battle that was fought here during the War of the Austrian Succession. The Italians were forced to spread their forces, protecting 13 passes but succeeded over the French invaders.
This victory is still celebrated every July 19th with costume ceremonies at the mountain pass. (pensive music) - This is the real ride on the ridge now. Look at this view. It's so beautiful. I know that there are some people who always say that Assietta Ridge Road is not so great because it is one of the more easy gravel roads and because it's kind of famous so it's as well higher frequented than some of the other dirt roads here in the area. But I think these people only say that because they are a bit miserable and they can't enjoy something if other people can enjoy it too.
So please, don't listen to these people. In my opinion, Assietta has some of the most beautiful views in the Alps.Just come here yourself and then decide if you like it or not. - So I bet you guys that my travel partner might stop at the next corner because this is a very memorable place for us. Assietta was one of the first places we ever traveled together after we met, and back in those days, many, many years ago, we drove here with his Ducati Multistrada, also known as the Diva, and he had normal road tires on and then I knew that this travel partner will be trouble. And I think that was our first adventure together ever.
- So this part of the road here is a very memorable place because my travel partner broke down here with his Ducati Multistrada the first time we drove Assietta ever. And what happened then? - Flat tire and a pickup truck came and picked us up and drove the bike down to somewhere, some village. And then I had to wait here for two days to get a new tire. - That was an adventure. - That was an adventure.
At that point, I was still very confident that I would never get any trouble here on this road myself. (lively music) - And the beautiful views continue. (tires squealing) - Do you hear that? Somehow that doesn't sound good.
You guys hear that. I think I need to stop and see what that is. (Lea gasping) - Oh no, shit, we lost a screw. It didn't break. The screw's gone. - Maybe we can find another one.
- Ja, but I mean, how do I get out of here. It's hitting the tire. I heard it. - I would need to unscrew it here.
Then it would be okay I think. But we don't have any screwdriver. Even though we had still a lot of our travel gear from West Africa and all sorts of spare parts with us on our motorcycles, I had taken out all tools from my bike. But, of course, my travel partner, like always, saved the situation by having a small pocket knife with him.
- So the solution was to take it off for now and to look for a screw once we are down there. - Even though Assietta is a more easy gravel road, riding on Assietta is never not an adventure. Now I have to slow down a little so the panniers don't get too many bumps, because they're kind of loose now.
- Here it says photo, so I guess that mountain ahead is where our Enduro friends that we met on Colle delle Finestre went up but I guess I better stick to the real road with my missing pannier stabilizer. (tranquil music) - We're getting closer to the other end of Assietta Road now and from there, you can either ride down to Sestriere or turn off here in the skiing area to the right, and ride back to our hotel, which is close to the town Sauze d'Oulx. (tranquil music) Assietta, of course, had been a great ride like always but we couldn't return to our hotel yet and instead made a detour to the village Sauze d'Oulx to find a locksmith that would have a spare screw for me so I could fix my panniers. We didn't find a locksmith though but instead a friendly local who saw us looking around in confusion, approached us and two minutes later, gave us the perfectly fitting screw from his toolbox. - Okay, okay.
Thank you so much. What do we owe you. Thank you so much. - No problem, okay.
- This was perfection. - Thank you so much! I was ready to finish this day with another nice ride and a happy ending, and then to prepare mentally for the next day that we had planned to spend with two friends riding another gravel road. But as soon as we hit the road again, I realized that there was something much worse wrong with my motorcycle than a loose screw. - So we were unfortunately a little bit unlucky today after we just fixed the panniers.
It now turns out that the rear brakes of my motorcycle are completely gone. And when I say completely, I mean completely. There's nothing left.
So I can't brake anymore and that sucks because actually, we wanted to drive some pretty roads here today and meet some friends tomorrow. But I don't know if that's going to work out now or maybe we have to go home earlier because I don't wanna ride off road with no rear brakes. (lively music) Yes, guys, we are ending this beautiful episode of the Assietta Ridge Road with a cliffhanger.
Will we have to go home or will we find a solution for my rear brake and be able to travel to the old military Fort of Jafferau with my friends? If you like this video, give it a thumbs up and leave a comment and tune in next Thursday for the next episode. To support my journey even further, become a Patreon or buy me a tank of fuel on Buy Me a Coffee. See you next week.
(bike roaring)
2022-03-13 15:14
