Italy, Lazio
Escape the ring road and the Abruzzo mountain roads and Umbrian hill towns open up quickly.
First instinct from Rome: head east towards Abruzzo.
Scored roads in range
11
Nearest great road
132 mi
Best rated nearby
8.9 / 10
Shortest full loop
8 hr 31 min
Checked by the Drivers Atlas desk
Scored and written by the Drivers Atlas editorial desk, drawing on driven routes across the UK and Europe, mapping data and member road reports. Every road in the library carries a driving and scenery score set by the same method. How we score roads.
Last reviewed 30 March 2026
150 to 400 km from the centre
Leave early, take the long way back and make a day of it.
Roughly 17 hr 18 min of driving if you string the lot together and come back the way you came.
140 mi away · Campania, Italy
A cliffside ribbon of hairpins clinging above turquoise water and pastel towns.
50 km · 31.1 mi · Atlas rating 9.7 / 10
198 mi away · Corse-du-Sud, Corsica, France
Impossibly narrow ledge road through blood red granite pinnacles above the Gulf of Porto.
12 km · 7.5 mi · Atlas rating 9.6 / 10
217 mi away · Dalmatian Coast
The Magistrala hugs bare karst cliffs above island studded blue water for hours.
180 km · 111.8 mi · Atlas rating 9.4 / 10
169 mi away · Corse-du-Sud, Corsica, France
Needle like granite spires tower over this pass linking Corsica's interior to the east coast.
38 km · 23.6 mi · Atlas rating 9.3 / 10
176 mi away · Haute-Corse, Corsica, France
A narrow gorge road blasted into red granite walls, the gateway to Corsica's high interior.
25 km · 15.5 mi · Atlas rating 9.3 / 10
227 mi away · Velebit
A wild Velebit crossing of endless hairpins between the Zrmanja canyon and the sea.
33 km · 20.5 mi · Atlas rating 9.3 / 10
Longer
187 km · 4h 15m
Four legendary passes strung between limestone cathedrals, the definitive alpine day.
49 km · 1h 30m
Forty-eight numbered hairpins stacked like a staircase into the sky.
142 km · 3h 20m
Gardesana corniche tunnels, then a climb into olive terraces above the water.
Plan it