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 336 km round trip from Ravenna - roughly 6 h 13 in the saddle. The stops in between: Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, Sasso Fratino and back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Casino, 65 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 comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sasso Fratino.
Sasso Fratino is a forest you are not allowed to enter, and that is precisely the point. High on the Romagna side of the Apennine ridge, in the national park of the Casentino forests, it was declared Italy's first integral nature reserve in 1959, and since then nature has been left almost entirely to itself. Ancient beech woods cling to steep slopes, with silver fir, maple and ash mixed in, and dead trees are left to rot where they fall, feeding fungi, beetles and birds. In 2017 it became part of the transnational World Heritage listing of ancient beech forests of Europe.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 167 km into the recorded legs you reach Sasso Fratino. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 65 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, 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.
Back at Archiepiscopal Chapel. That is the ride.
Archiepiscopal Chapel → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → Sasso Fratino is 105 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sasso Fratino → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → Archiepiscopal Chapel is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.