Transfăgărășan

Built as a military insurance policy, the Transfăgărășan is now Europe's most theatrical strip of tarmac, glacial lake at the top, viaducts hanging in mid-air below, and it delivers on the drama at every one of its switchbacks.

Drive it north to south, starting at Bâlea Lac, so the long southern descent past the Bâlea waterfall and down to the Vidraru dam is done downhill in daylight, when the road is at its most photogenic.

Difficulty depends entirely on traffic and weather. The road itself is well surfaced above Cârțișoara, patchier and narrower on the northern approach, and it is genuinely dangerous in fog or after rain, when the hairpins near the tunnel turn slick.

Best driven early on a summer weekday. What makes it special is the sheer improbability of it, a four lane military road hacked through granite for a war that never came, now given over entirely to driving for pleasure.