The Maloja is the odd one out among Engadine passes: pancake-flat along the lake-strewn valley from St Moritz, then suddenly off a cliff — thirteen tight hairpins tumbling towards Italy in a wall of bends best admired from the viewpoint above the top switchback. Painters adored this light; Segantini refused to leave it. Carry on down to Lake Como for lunch and you've linked Switzerland's grandest valley to Italy's grandest lake in a single morning. Autumn brings golden larches and empty tarmac.
Featured in Ten jaw-dropping mountain roads and passes to drive · Mountain