North of Rome, the ancient Via Flaminia runs up through the Ager Faliscus, a landscape of volcanic tufa plateaux cut by deep, wooded ravines, and Rignano Flaminio sits right on its line. The road was built in the third century BC to link Rome with the Adriatic, and you are following, more or less, the route of legions, merchants and pilgrims who travelled it for two thousand years.
The dominant feature here is Monte Soratte, a long limestone ridge rising abruptly out of the plain to the north of Rignano. Horace wrote of it standing white with snow, and it was a holy mountain long before Christianity, with a monastery on the summit now. Inside it, a network of tunnels dug before the Second World War served as a German command centre in 1943 and 1944 and was later adapted as a Cold War bunker. Guided tours run on some days.
The riding around Rignano is varied and enjoyable. The tufa plateaux are crossed by roads that suddenly plunge into ravines and climb out again, with tight bends and short, steep sections. The villages perched on the tufa cliffs, like Civita Castellana and Sant'Oreste, at the foot of Soratte, are dramatic. Surfaces vary from good to poor, and some minor roads are narrow and rough. Traffic on the Flaminia can be heavy close to Rome.
Fuel and food are available in Rignano and the surrounding towns. As a scenic stretch, the view of Soratte rising above the plain is the highlight, especially in the morning light.