While there’s no hiding the fact that I love cars, it’s not always just the mechanical, technological, aural or aesthetic aspects I love most. In fact, depending on the car, any one of those aspects falls a distant second to the one thing I love most about cars… Driving them.
Anyone with a passion for driving has a favorite road or two, but even those of us with a mental notebook of our personal favorites also have the dream roads we’ve never driven, which we keep on our driving bucket list.
While we have some pretty good mountain roads in the U.S., and some that are genuinely great, it’s hard not to acknowledge some of the absolutely incredible roads and mountain passes across Europe. Some of it is just the scenery, but that’s a big part of what makes these roads so amazing. The curves and switchbacks are obviously a huge part of the equation. Part of what makes these European dream roads so extraordinary is that they seem to have been constructed around the European landscape, rather than through it, as is often the case in the U.S.
As I was doing some recent road daydreaming I happened to come across the Curves-Magazin website dedicated to these exact roads, and to what they refer to as “Soulful Driving.” They publish periodicals with some of the most breathtaking images and they also have route maps, key places to visit and even recommended hotels and restaurants.
I ordered up CURVES 2 Borders – Soulful Driving and it arrived within just a couple of days—you’ve got to love international air shipments. The book shows some of the most spectacular mountain passes between Italy and Switzerland, including the rather famous Stelvio Pass. As you can see in the sample gallery below, it’s rather easy to spend a lot of time simply staring at the photographs and letting your imagination run wild. As much as I’d like to understand the text, it’s really all about the pictures anyway… At least until you actually book your trip.
It’s a 224-page softcover book with 150 stunning photos. The only problem (for me anyway) is that it’s all in German, so it may be time to invest in some Rosetta Stone language lessons. The reality is that it doesn’t matter what language it’s written in, though. It’s really all about the images… Until the European road trip gets planned anyway.