Let us help you discover the small Alpine town of Bormio! Here are our top 5 things to see and do in Bormio.
Discover this unique Alpine town, get ready to enjoy one adventure after another!
Bormio, an historic Alpine centre
The old town of Bormio is considered to be one of a kind in the Alps.
The heart of the town is Piazza del Kuerc, where several monuments that are representative of the town can be found. To begin with, there is the civic tower with a large clock which has set the time for the local residents for centuries. Then there is the Kuerc itself, now a meeting point for tourists and locals alike. When Bormio was independent, the Kuerc was the place where justice was administered and decrees and sentences were posted on its pillars.
The main streets of the town can be explored one by one, leaving you in awe at the wealth of monuments, villas and decorative wrought iron gateways on display.
Reparto Combo and farming culture
Reparto Combo is very well known in Bormio as the part of the town which is devoted to winter sports because it is where the famous Stelvio ski pistes finishes.In fact Combo is one of the five districts which make up Bormio and it has an ancient, farming heart which still survives to this today, something you should definitely seek out!
After crossing the ancient Combo bridge, we recommend you turn left into Via Marconi where you will find old houses with stables from which the sounds of animals lowing can still be heard, as well as the typical ‘taulà’ barns where farmers continue to store the hay during winter and where they used to thresh the rye grains.
Enjoy the delights of a quiet relaxing walk to the Sassello church where you can enjoy an unexpected view over Bormio town centre.
After leaving the church, head downhill to the church in Combo, which you will see a short distance from Via Marconi at the entrance to Via Zuccola where, above the ancient entrance, there is a fresco depicting the old walled town of Bormio.
The Stelvio piste, home to the great of skiing
The Stelvio piste is rightly considered one of the finest downhill ski pistes in the world. This claim is supported by the greats of men’s downhill skiing who compete here every year on this pistes, as well as by the numbers!
Starting is an attitude of 2,255 m and finishing in the town at 1,225 m, it is the longest descent on the downhill skiing World Cup circuit. 1,000 m all downhill! It is also one of the most technically demanding and physically gruelling, with the gradient on parts of the course reaching 60%!
In 2026, the Stelvio piste will host all of the men’s Alpine skiing events in the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
Leave the town centre and you immediately enter the Stelvio National Park
Not many people know that the Stelvio National Park reaches almost as far as Piazza del Kuerc, the town’s main square.
So in only a few minutes, you leave behind the slightly “urban” feel of Bormio and enter the peace and quiet of the forests and meadows in the park. How about a little walk to escape the town? From the square in Bormio, head to Planon dei Laresc, a large meadow surrounded by larch trees and offering a wonderful view over the whole of the Bormio valley.
Bormio and its glacier
Few people know that when you reach the Stelvio pass at 2,757 m, you are still officially in Bormio!
The Stelvio pass is part of the Bormio municipality and, therefore, when the road over the pass is open in summer, and the hotels and ski piece on the glacier are full of visitors, Bormio can claim to be the highest inhabited town in Europe. Many Bormio residents spend the summer on the Stelvio pass for work or for pleasure, allowing travellers the chance to sleep at high altitude and giving skiers the opportunity to experience skiing on the Stelvio glacier.
Plenty of people come and visit the high altitude part of the town, enjoying a sausage and sauerkraut panino and gazing at the incomparable view of all the hairpins which tumble down the opposite side of the pass, or looking up at the summit of the Ortles which, at 3,905 m, is the highest mountain in the Bormio region.
