What the lake looks like from 1 491 metres — and how hard you have to work to get there.
The Mottarone is not a famous climb. It has never had a stage finish, no breakaway has ever been decided on its upper ramps, and it does not appear on any list of great Alpine ascents. What it has instead is something rarer — a summit that makes geographical sense of everything you have seen from the lake below.
From the top, on a clear morning, you can count seven lakes simultaneously: Maggiore, Orta, Mergozzo, Varese, Monate, Comabbio, Biandronno. The Po valley stretches south until it blurs into haze. The Monte Rosa massif fills the north horizon at 4 609 metres. Standing at 1 491 metres, the Mottarone should not be able to see this much. It does anyway.
"The mountain's name comes from Meut Rond — round mountain — in the old dialect of the alpine farmers who grazed their cattle here for centuries before anyone thought to build a road. In 1881, there were seventy-seven registered pastures on these slopes and 2 000 cows. The cyclists arrived much later."
The eastern flank belongs to the Borromeo family — the same dynasty that built the baroque palaces on the islands below — who have owned it since the 15th century. Their private toll road cuts through nine kilometres of dense forest from Gignese to the summit. Cars pay. Cyclists do not. This asymmetry alone is worth the climb.
The route in numbers
Distance20 kmElevation gain1 252 mAverage gradient6.2%Summit altitude1 491 mHow the climb unfolds
Stresa → Gignese 0 – 11 km · avg 5.5%
The opening act is generous. The road leaves Stresa through villas and garden walls, then settles into the forest with long sweeping curves. The gradient stays honest — never punishing, never flat. Gignese appears after the first hour: a village known for its umbrella museum and, more usefully, a reliable water fountain. Fill your bottles here. The real climb begins on the other side of the village.
Gignese → Borromeo tollgate 11 – 14 km · avg 7%
The road steepens as it enters the Borromeo estate. The tollbooth is where cars slow to pay their €10 — you filter through the side gate for free, and the forest closes around you. The surface here is older, the shade total. Traffic thins to almost nothing. The trees are mostly beech and pine, centuries old, and the silence between switchbacks is the kind that makes you aware of your own breathing.
Borromeo road → summit 14 – 20 km · avg 7.5% · max 15%
The forest breaks. The road turns right and the view opens without warning — the lake drops away thousands of metres below, and you suddenly understand every metre of altitude you have gained. The final six kilometres across open alpine meadow are also the hardest: gradients above 10% appear regularly, and the wind picks up as the trees disappear. The summit plateau is wide and grassy. Walk ten minutes beyond the car park to the bare granite tip, and the seven lakes reveal themselves.
Three ways up
SideStatsCharacterClassicFrom Stresa20 km · 1 252 m · 6.2%Long approach through forest, lake views from km 3 onwardHarderFrom Armeno11.7 km · 900 m · 7.7%Shorter and steeper, double-digit gradients right from the villageScenicFrom Orta~16 km · 1 100 m · 6.8%Crosses the Orta basin — the descent back to Orta San Giulio is one of the finest in the regionBefore you go
Toll road — The Strada Privata Borromea charges cars €10. Cyclists pass through the side gate at no cost. Respect the surface on the descent — some sections are rough.
Timing — Start before 9am in summer. The upper road gets warm fast, and car traffic through the Borromeo gate builds after 10am. Autumn mornings offer the clearest seven-lake views — the Po valley haze lifts overnight.
Descent — The road is narrow below Gignese and blind corners are frequent. Brake early, trust your outside foot. Alternatively, descend toward Armeno and return via ferry from the eastern shore.
At the top — There is a bar and a restaurant at the summit car park, both open in season. Walk the extra ten minutes to the bare granite tip — the car park is not the summit, and the difference in view is significant.
The ride down from the Mottarone back to Stresa takes twenty minutes. The ascent, depending on legs, somewhere between one hour twenty and two hours. The disproportion between effort and return is what defines a good cycling climb — you spend the rest of the day staring at the summit from the lake, knowing what is up there, having put it in your legs. That is the point of the Mottarone.