Why this ride
From Perugia it runs 118 km to Perugia; allow about 2 h 10 of riding. The stops in between: Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l, Ville d'Assise, Assisi and The Clitunno Tempietto.
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.
From Perugia it runs 118 km to Perugia; allow about 2 h 10 of riding. The stops in between: Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l, Ville d'Assise, Assisi and The Clitunno Tempietto.
Perugia sits on a ridge above the Tiber valley, with a long history and a student population that keeps it young. The Etruscans founded it, and the Etruscan Arch still stands in the old walls, with Roman lettering added later. From the top of the hill you can see across Umbria to Assisi, Spello and, on a clear morning, the line of the Apennines. The city is large, about a hundred and twenty thousand people, so you have every service you need.
Read the complete Perugia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Perugia is where the day begins. Next is Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l.
Below the hill of Assisi, on the plain, stands a church that was built to cover a tiny one. The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, a huge baroque building from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, has at its centre the Porziuncola, a small chapel of stone, only a few metres long, where Francis of Assisi received his first followers and founded the Franciscan order in the early thirteenth century. He died in a hut beside it in 1226, and the chapel was so precious that the basilica was raised over it, like a case around a jewel.
Read the complete Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l comes up 16 km in. Next is Ville d'Assise.
Assisi sits on the western flank of Monte Subasio, and the first thing you notice is the colour. The stone, quarried from the mountain itself, is a pale pink-white that glows at sunset, and the whole town seems to hang off the slope above the Umbrian plain. It was the home of Saint Francis, born here around 1181, who gave up his father's cloth business to live in poverty, and the town built one of the great pilgrimage churches of Christendom around his tomb. The Basilica of San Francesco has two layers of frescoes by Giotto and his circle, and was badly shaken by the earthquake of 1997, when part of the vault fell. It reopened after careful restoration, and UNESCO listed Assisi in 2000.
Read the complete Ville d'Assise write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
32 km in you reach Ville d'Assise. Next is Assisi.
From the valley floor Assisi looks like a long pale ribbon draped across the lower slope of Monte Subasio, and the colour comes from the mountain itself. The town is built of Subasio stone, a limestone that ranges from cream to rose, and in the evening light the whole place glows pink. It is, of course, the town of Francis, the merchant's son who gave away everything in the early thirteenth century and founded the Franciscan order, and of Clare, who followed him. The great basilica built over his tomb, begun in 1228, has two churches one above the other, and the frescoes inside, including the cycle of the saint's life traditionally attributed to Giotto, changed the course of European painting.
Read the complete Assisi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Assisi, about halfway. Next is The Clitunno Tempietto.
A few steps from the Via Flaminia, in the green flatland below Spoleto, there is a little building that scholars have argued about for centuries. The Tempietto del Clitunno looks like a miniature Roman temple, with a gabled front, columns and a carved cornice, but it is actually an early medieval church, made largely of reused Roman pieces and probably dating from somewhere between late antiquity and the time of the Lombards. It is among the group of Lombard sites in Italy that UNESCO listed in 2011, and part of its charm is that nobody is quite sure who built it or when.
Read the complete The Clitunno Tempietto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Clitunno Tempietto sits at 65 km, about halfway. Next is back through Assisi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Assisi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Assisi comes up 81 km in. Next is back through Ville d'Assise.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ville d'Assise write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
97 km in you reach back through Ville d'Assise. Next is back through Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l, late in the day. Next is Perugia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Perugia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 118 km.
Perugia → Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l → Ville d'Assise is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Assisi → The Clitunno Tempietto is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Clitunno Tempietto → back through Assisi is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ville d'Assise → back through Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Basilique de Santa Maria degli Angeli et l → Perugia is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.