Splügen Pass is the high point of the Via Spluga, the old route between Chiavenna and the Swiss Rhine valley. The road climbs to 2,114 metres, where the landscape opens into bare alpine slopes and the border suddenly feels like a place rather than a line on a map.
The pass has been used since Roman times, though modern traffic mostly disappeared after the San Bernardino tunnel opened in 1967. For walkers and cyclists, that makes it better: quieter, more atmospheric, and still a real mountain crossing.