One valley, two visits and three rides: the full length of the Verzasca from Sonogno to the lake in 2015, the same again at 37°C in 2019, and a morning in the emerald pools of Val d'Osura. Green water, white granite and a 220m dam.
Of all the places on this site, the Verzasca is the one with the most photos per kilometre, because the river makes you stop. It's a narrow valley in Ticino, the Italian-speaking south of Switzerland, running about 25km from Sonogno at the top down to Lake Maggiore. Both times we stayed at the top end and rode down and back up.
The valley ends at the Verzasca Dam, built between 1961 and 1965 and finished by September 1965. At 220m it's the fourth tallest dam in Switzerland, and it holds back Lago di Vogorno, about 105 million cubic metres of water, only 2km upstream from Lake Maggiore. It's famous for one thing above all: the opening scene of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, in which Bond bungee-jumps off the top. The jump was done for real by the stuntman Wayne Michaels, and in 2002 a Sky Movies poll voted it the best film stunt of all time. Soon after the film, the dam's owners started leasing it to a bungee company, and more than 10,000 people have since made the same 220m jump.
Above the dam, the road climbs gently past Vogorno and Corippo, Switzerland's smallest municipality, to Lavertezzo and its old two-arched bridge, and on through Brione, Gerra and Frasco to Sonogno at the head of the valley. The stone farmhouses, the rustici, are grey granite with white window frames and heavy stone roofs.
The Verzasca road is a single climb, or a single descent, depending on which end you start. From the mouth of the valley near Tenero to Sonogno it gains about 650m over 25km, so it's never steep: around 2.5% on average. That makes it a good valley for anyone, with one warning: the bottom is low and sheltered, and in July it can be very hot. In 2019 it was 37°C down there and much cooler at the top. And leave time for the river: the best stretches are between Brione and Lavertezzo, and up any of the side valleys.