152 km, two lakes and a valley
There are rides we end up underestimating just because they pass close to where we live, or because on paper they look unremarkable. And yet that’s exactly where it’s worth going back to find the pleasure of simple things: a well-built road, a curve that repeats, a landscape that changes without needing to go far. This motorcycle loop was born from that feeling. It starts in Buguggiate and over a hundred and fifty-two kilometres crosses Lake Maggiore, the Valcuvia and the Ceresio, alternating lakeside towns, prealpine roads, stretches through the woods and passages along the water that change rhythm without ever becoming excessive.
It’s not a ride to take in a hurry. It works best if you take it for what it is: a day that’s easy to organise, close enough to feel almost ordinary, but with enough variations to remember that even the rides closest to home can still surprise you. In this sense it pairs naturally with the 88 km loop around Lake Maggiore — same philosophy, different length.
Essentials
- Distance: 152 km
- Positive elevation: about 2,000 m
- Net riding time: about 4 hours (plus stops)
- Start and end: Buguggiate
- Areas crossed: Lake Maggiore, Valcuvia, Lake Ceresio
- Track: available on Kurviger and as a GPX file
Towards Lake Maggiore
The first part of the ride drops from Buguggiate towards Lake Maggiore. At the start the route still has the pace of connecting roads: some busier stretches, a few crossings, that phase when the itinerary still has to find its tone.
Then comes Angera, and the lake begins to enter the ride.
Here the landscape opens up. The water broadens the view, riding relaxes, and the loop takes on a different rhythm. It’s not yet the most engaging part of the ring, but it’s the first real breath: the moment when you understand that you don’t need to go far to change perspective.
From Angera the road continues to Ranco, one of the most natural points for a short stop. The lakefront, the small harbour, the trees lined up along the road: everything is plain, almost essential. It’s a stop that doesn’t need to become an event. A coffee, a few minutes by the water, and you set off again.
Ranco also marks a small change of character. Up to here it’s the lake that has guided the route. From here on, gradually, it will be the road that takes the centre.
Before entering the woods, the ride still passes near Lake Maggiore, around Porto Valtravaglia. It’s one of the last moments where water remains truly present in the landscape: the lake, the mountains, the more open light before the road completely changes character.
The climb to Roggiano
Climbing towards Roggiano, the ride changes pace.
The road narrows, enters the woods and starts turning continuously, right and left, almost without leaving room for a straight. It’s not a road to be ridden hard. If anything, the worst way to take it would be to want to “ride it”. It has to be followed, curve after curve, letting it set the rhythm.
It’s one of those roads that seem to come out of a fantasy story. The forest is thick, beautiful, and in some places it seems to close above the asphalt. Sunlight passes between the leaves and creates a particular, almost suspended light that changes with every curve. There’s no need for sweeping panoramas: in that stretch the landscape doesn’t open up — it surrounds you.
And that’s exactly where the ride finds its best moment. After the breath of Lake Maggiore, this climb pulls everything into a more enclosed dimension. Less view, more presence. Less openness, more road.
The climb to Roggiano is probably the heart of the loop. Not because it’s long or difficult, but because it sticks. It’s narrow, continuous, green, full of curves, and has that light that makes everything feel a little slower. It’s the kind of road that, when it ends, makes you want to turn around and ride it backwards.
The cover image was born here, from the Roggiano area, where the woods and the water make the landscape more hidden and unexpected. It doesn’t tell the whole ride, but it captures its spirit well: nothing spectacular in the classical sense, no special effects. Just a close, simple point that reminds you why it was worth passing right through there.
After Roggiano the route continues towards the Valcuvia and Cunardo. The lake is now behind; what remains is the most inland part of the ride, the one that naturally accompanies you towards a pause before descending, further on, towards the Ceresio.
Cunardo arrives as a natural stopping point. After the most engaging stretch and before the descent towards the second lake, stopping here lets the ride breathe. It’s not just a convenient stop: it’s the point where the loop changes half.
The Ceresio and the way back
From Cunardo the road drops towards Lavena Ponte Tresa and then towards the Ceresio — the Italian shore of Lake Lugano. Here too the landscape changes again. Lake Maggiore is more open, broader, brighter. The Ceresio is more enclosed, more vertical, often pressed between water and mountain.
Lavena Ponte Tresa introduces this second lake section. Then Brusimpiano and Porto Ceresio carry the route at a calmer pace, made of brief glimpses and sudden openings. It’s not the same ride as the climb to Roggiano, but it’s a coherent finale: less forest, more water; fewer tight curves, more breath.
Porto Ceresio is a good point to stop before heading home. From here the ride has already shown almost everything: Lake Maggiore, the valley, the woods, the second lake. Only the closing of the loop is left.
The return through Brinzio leads back inland, away from the water and again into the prealpine landscape of the Varese area. It’s a sober conclusion, with no need to raise the tone. After two lakes and a valley, what you need is a road that accompanies you home.
And perhaps this is the ride’s greatest virtue: it never tries to be more than what it is. A hundred and fifty-two kilometres, places close by, a day that’s easy to organise.
And yet, put together in the right way, those kilometres become something more than a short ride.
They become a reminder.
That you don’t always need to go far to rediscover the pleasure of riding.
The route
The full route can be opened on Kurviger or downloaded as a GPX file.
Click and open the route on Kurviger!
GPX file: click and download the GPX track
A few practical notes: on weekends and during the warmer months the lakeside stretches can be busier; the climb from Porto Valtravaglia to Roggiano needs to be taken with patience, since it’s narrow and very engaging; Ranco, Cunardo and Porto Ceresio are the most natural points to break the ride into stops.
The route gives its best when it isn’t lived as a sequence of kilometres to close, but as a loop to savour.