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 478 km round trip from Ravenna - roughly 9 h 06 in the saddle. The stops in between: Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, Gessi Bolognesi, Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino and Baraccano. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Ravenna was the capital of the western Roman empire in the fifth century, then of the Ostrogothic kingdom under Theodoric and later of Byzantine Italy, and each of these rulers left a layer of mosaics that glitter in the dark. The Archiepiscopal Chapel, dedicated to Sant'Andrea, was built around the year 500 by Theodoric, who was an Arian Christian, and its vault and walls are covered in gold and white mosaics of birds, flowers, and a Christ dressed as a Roman soldier, trampling a lion and a serpent. It is a tiny space, barely big enough for a small group, but the effect is astonishing.
Read the complete Archiepiscopal Chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archiepiscopal Chapel is where the day begins. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, 46 km on.
Driving through the hills of Romagna, south of Faenza, you notice a long, pale ridge cutting across the valleys like a wall. This is the Vena del Gesso Romagnola, a band of gypsum rock about twenty-five kilometres long, and Monte Mauro is its highest point, rising above the villages of Riolo Terme, Brisighella and Fognano. The ridge is now a regional park and part of the UNESCO site for the evaporitic karst of the northern Apennines.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gessi Bolognesi.
Ride south out of Bologna and within ten minutes the city's suburbs give way to something surprising: a range of low hills made of gypsum, a soft, crystalline rock that dissolves in water and forms caves, sinkholes and strange, shiny outcrops. These are the Gessi Bolognesi, a protected regional park between the Savena and Idice valleys, and in 2023 they became part of the UNESCO site for the evaporitic karst and caves of the northern Apennines.
Read the complete Gessi Bolognesi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 127 km into the recorded legs you reach Gessi Bolognesi. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 46 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.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, about halfway. Next is Baraccano.
Baraccano is not a village, it is a corner of Bologna: a gate in the old thirteenth-century walls where the Via Santo Stefano runs out of the centre. The name comes from the barbican that once defended it. Next to the gate stands the small sanctuary of the Madonna del Baraccano, a Renaissance church whose fresco of the Virgin drew pilgrims after a reported miracle, and beside it a lovely little courtyard, a place most visitors walk straight past on the way to the Two Towers.
Read the complete Baraccano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baraccano sits at 185 km, about halfway. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 46 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.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino comes up about 299 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gessi Bolognesi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gessi Bolognesi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 357 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gessi Bolognesi. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, 46 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro, late in the day. Next is Archiepiscopal Chapel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archiepiscopal Chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 478 km.
Archiepiscopal Chapel → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro → Gessi Bolognesi is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gessi Bolognesi → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → Baraccano is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baraccano → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → back through Gessi Bolognesi is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gessi Bolognesi → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Mauro → Archiepiscopal Chapel is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.