CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 368 km round trip from Bologna - roughly 6 h 16 in the saddle. On the way it passes Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, Cathedral and back through Cathedral. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 1 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Bologna rewards the person who arrives by bike and then walks. It sits where the flat Po plain meets the first fold of the Apennines, a red-brick city of just under four hundred thousand, and you can feel the shift in the road long before you see the towers. From the south, the old Via Emilia and the Futa and Raticosa passes bring you down from the mountains in long, easy sweeps that end very suddenly in traffic lights and delivery vans.
Read the complete Bologna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bologna is where the day begins. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 36 km on.
The Santerno valley climbs south from Imola into the Apennines toward Tuscany, and about fifteen kilometres up, the river cuts through a ridge of shining grey-white rock. This is the western end of the Vena del Gesso Romagnola, the gypsum vein that runs across this part of Romagna, and Monte Penzola rises above the village of Borgo Tossignano, with Fontanelice and Casalfiumanese nearby.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola comes up 36 km in. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 35 km on.
Crystals the size of a hand catch the sun along the Vena del Gesso, a ridge of selenite gypsum that runs for some twenty-five kilometres across the hills of Romagna, from the Sillaro valley to the Lamone. The rock formed millions of years ago when the Mediterranean dried up and its salts were deposited, and it has since been carved by water into caves, sinkholes and blind valleys. In 2023, UNESCO listed the evaporite karst and caves of the northern Apennines, and the Vena del Gesso is the heart of it. Monte Casino is one of the peaks on the ridge, near Borgo Tossignano and Casola Valsenio.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
71 km in you reach Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino. Next is Cathedral.
Modena's cathedral is one of the masterpieces of Romanesque architecture in Europe, and the inscription on its facade still names its makers with pride: the architect Lanfranco and the sculptor Wiligelmo. Work began in 1099 to house the relics of Saint Geminianus, the city's patron, and the result is a building of pale stone, with arcaded galleries, lions supporting the columns of the portal, and carved panels telling the story of Genesis with an expressive power that still surprises. The Ghirlandina, the cathedral's bell tower, leans slightly and rises high above the rooftops, and together with the Piazza Grande they form a UNESCO site.
Read the complete Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cathedral, about halfway. Next is Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cathedral sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cathedral comes up 178 km in. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 35 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
213 km in you reach back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 36 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, late in the day. Next is Bologna.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bologna write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 368 km.
Bologna → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → Cathedral is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cathedral → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola → Bologna is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.