In contrast to the Pyrenees, where there are no easy passes for most of the range and crossings are limited to the W and E ends, there are large numbers of Alpine crossings mentioned in the itineraries. For this reason, the Alps gets its own region, which contains several important shrines, of which Einsiedeln is the one which figures in the itineraries.
In the western Alps, access on the W side is from the Rhone valley, with important routes from the delta, Chambéry, and Lake Geneva; on the E side from the coast at Savona and the Po valley at Vercelli, with a node at Susa. In the central Alps, the Rhine valley cuts deep into the mountains to the north, where Chur is an important node, and Basel feeds several routes; to the south, Milano is the main node in the Po valley. In the E Alps, the Inn valley is the main access route from the north, with nodes at Innsbrück and Landeck; from the south, the Etsch/Adige is the main feeder, with a node at Bolzano.
The lines shown here only roughly indicate the pass roads; for more detailed information, see separate page.