Here you are north of Rome, close to Riano, in the broad Tiber valley, on the volcanic plain between the river and the Sabine foothills. It is the other end of the day for a ride that left Rome by the Via Flaminia or Via Salaria, and the character of the land is gentle: fields of wheat and sunflowers, old farm towers, olive groves on the first low hills and always, to the north, the shape of Monte Soratte.
Soratte is a limestone ridge that rises abruptly from the plain to about 690 metres, an isolated whale-backed mountain that seems to have been dropped in the wrong place. The Roman poet Horace wrote of it covered in snow in one of his odes, and in the Second World War, German forces dug a vast tunnel complex into its rock, which later served as a nuclear shelter for the Italian state. In the middle ages a monastery stood on the summit, and monks gave the place a long tradition of pilgrimage. It is visible from nearly all the roads around here and makes a good landmark.
The riding is pleasant and not demanding. The old Via Flaminia, built in 220 BC and the main road from Rome to the Adriatic, runs just to the east, and the Via Salaria, the old salt road used by the Sabines, passes through Monterotondo and over the plain. Both roads are straight and busy, but behind them lie quieter lanes through villages with a church, a bar and a fountain, and on a clear spring morning, with the poppies out, they are lovely. Mist rises from the Tiber in autumn. Heavy lorries serve the quarries and industrial areas, and you should keep your distance.
Riano, a town of nearly seven thousand, is four kilometres away and has fuel stations, bakeries and bars. Nearby are plenty of places for a pizza by the slice or a plate of pasta, often in family-run trattorias that fill at lunchtime on Sundays with whole families. Roman drivers are fast and expect you to keep up, so stay alert in traffic. It is a gentle landing before the city, with the evening light coming across the fields.