The Passo dello Stelvio, the highest pass in Italy, is situated in the Alps Retiche, to the north-west of the Montuoso group of the Ortles-Cevedale; province of Bolzano puts in communication the Valtellina (in province of Sondrio) with the Val Venosta.
In the year 1818, under emperor Franz, an order was given to plan the shortest connection between the Valtellina and the Val Veneosta. The engineer Carlo Donegani from Brescia had finished the projection within half a year The construction of the road was started in April 1820 on behalf of the Austrian empire.
The military importance and the political situation of that days [since the contract of Vienna the empire of the Lombardei belonged to Habsburg] contributed that the road construction had been finished within only five years. Effectively, the construction took less than 2 years, because of the breaks in the winter. Around 2000 workers had been employed. With the transfer of South Tyrol to Italy (1919) the 48 kilometre long road came to be situated entirely on Italian land. The Stelvio is not an essential through-route, but it is one of the most magnificent mountain passes to be found in Europe. Until 1936, when the Iseran (Fra), 2770 m was opened, it was the highest pass in Europe to be reached by car [The use of the Col de la Bonnette/Restefond (Fra), 2802 m was restricted until 1960 because of military use]. It is incomparably finer from the scenic angle: indeed, many consider it scenically the finest of all the Alpine passes. It is possible to climb the Stelvio from two different sides.
From Bormio and from Prato both in Italy. It is also possible to reach the Stelvio from Switzerland, namely from St. Maria, but strictly speaking that is not the Passo dello Stelvio, but the Passo Umbrail (2501 m). From the Passo Umbrail one can go on to the top of the Passo dello Stelvio (a rise of 256 metres in 3 kilometres, that is a slope of 8.5%). The toughest, and to us most spectacular climbing is the one from Prato. Not less then 48 hairpins are on the way to the top. It is regarded as one of the finest continuous hairpin sectors in the Alps.
An interesting point is that after climbing from the side of Prato, one can go down to Bormio and from there to Mazzo di Valtellina, the starting point of the horrible Mortirolo (1852). The Mortirolo is considered to be the toughest mountain one can climb in Italy and many professional cyclers consider it as the most difficult mountain to be climbed in any of the three major tours (Tour, Giro, Vuelta).
Before the year 1959 the road was opened the whole year, even in winter. And therefore along the pass road there were 8 little road-attendant-houses, where one could stay and change the horses. The travellers were protected from the danger from snow-slips and avalanges with over 900 meters tunnels and wooden galleries. In the winter months the transport of persons and commodities was carried out with sleighs. The most important points were at the Franzenshöhe and at the IV Cantoniera (Umbrail-Pass).
On the pass itself the first place to stay was established in 1897 with the building of the Hotel Passo Stelvio (in former days Hotel Ferdinandshöhe). At the IV Cantoniera the road branches off over the Umbrail-Pass (2502 m) to Switzerland, Sta. Maria. In the year 1900 this section -over 13 kilometers- had been constructed.