CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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 267 km round trip from Castelnovo ne'Monti - roughly 5 h 05 in the saddle. On the way it passes Cathedral, Sabbioneta and back through Cathedral. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 70 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The upper valley of the Secchia is the high Apennine country of Reggio Emilia, a landscape of beech woods, bare grassy ridges and deep river valleys, where Emilia gives way to Tuscany. The river rises near the Passo del Cerreto, at about 1,260 metres, and flows north through sparsely populated hills before dropping to the plain and the Po. The region is part of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park, with wolves, golden eagles and red deer in the high country.
Read the complete Alta Valle secchia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alta Valle secchia is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sabbioneta.
Sabbioneta is a Renaissance experiment: a whole town built from scratch in the second half of the sixteenth century by Vespasiano Gonzaga, a soldier, scholar and minor prince of the great Mantuan family, who wanted a capital laid out according to the ideals of the age. He got it. Inside its star-shaped walls the streets run in a regular grid, and in a few hundred metres you pass a ducal palace, a long gallery built to show off his collection of ancient sculpture, a summer palace, and one of the earliest purpose-built theatres in Europe, the Teatro all'Antica, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Sabbioneta and Mantua were listed together by UNESCO in 2008 as two contrasting visions of the Renaissance city.
Read the complete Sabbioneta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 134 km into the recorded legs you reach Sabbioneta. 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, late in the day. Next is Alta Valle secchia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alta Valle secchia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Alta Valle secchia. That is the ride.
Alta Valle secchia → Cathedral is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cathedral → Sabbioneta is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sabbioneta → back through Cathedral is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cathedral → Alta Valle secchia is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.