[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)]The Passo dello Stelvio / Stilfser Joch opening of 2020 and some shot of the Umbrail Pass on the Swiss side of the Stilfserjoch, currently closed because of the Covid19 pandemic. The Swiss border with Italy should re-open around June 15th 2020. TOP Gear defines Italy's Stelvio Pass:: "One of the World's greatest roads". The Stelvio Pass (Italian: Passo dello Stelvio) is a mountain pass in northern Italy, at an elevation of 2,757 m (9,045 ft) above sea level. It is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alps. The original road was built in 1820–25 by the Austrian Empire to connect the former Austrian province of Lombardy with the rest of Austria, covering a climb of 1,871 m (6,138 ft) The engineer and project manager was Carlo Donegani (1775–1845). Since then, the route has changed very little. Its seventy-five hairpin turns, 48 of them on the northern side numbered with stones, are a challenge to motorists. Stirling Moss went off the road here during a vintage car event in the 1990s, with an onboard video of his incident being shown on satellite TV. Before the end of World War I, it formed the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Italian Kingdom. The Swiss had an outpost and a hotel (which was destroyed) on the Dreisprachenspitze (literally, Three-Language-Peak). During World War I, fierce battles were fought in the ice and snow of the area, with gun fire even crossing the Swiss area at times. The three nations made an agreement not to fire over Swiss territory, which jutted out in between Austria (to the north) and Italy (to the south). Instead they could fire down the pass, as Swiss territory was up and around the peak. After 1919, with the expansion of Italy, the pass lost its strategic importance. Umbrail Pass is located at 2,501 metres (8,205 ft) and is a high mountain pass on the Swiss-Italian border connecting Santa Maria in Val Müstair with Bormio in the Adda valley. On the Italian side, it connects to the Stelvio Pass road. It is currently the highest paved road in Switzerland. The sign at the top of the pass gives its altitude as 2,503 meters above sea level, but the reference level for Swiss altitude measurements has changed since the sign was erected, leaving 2,501 meters as the correct value according to current methods. The pass is named after the "Piz Umbrail", a nearby mountain peak. The road is entirely asphalted since 2015. The last unpaved section was a 1.5 km stretch on the Swiss side between altitudes 1883m and 2012m. During the 2017 Giro d'Italia, Umbrail Pass was reached during the stage from Rovetta to Bormio.