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 338 km round trip from Ravenna - roughly 6 h 15 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.
The Arian Baptistry is small, plain and easy to miss, tucked on a side street east of the old centre, and that is half of its appeal. It is an octagon of brick, built by Theodoric in the early sixth century for the Arian Christians, the faith the Goths followed. Arians believed that Christ was subordinate to God the Father, a view the orthodox church condemned as heresy, and so Theodoric's Ravenna had two communities, two cathedrals and two baptisteries, living side by side with surprising tolerance for an age of war.
Read the complete Arian Baptistry write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Arian Baptistry is where the day begins. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 66 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 64 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 169 km into the recorded legs you reach Sasso Fratino. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 66 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 Arian Baptistry.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Arian Baptistry write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Arian Baptistry. That is the ride.
Arian Baptistry → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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 → Arian Baptistry is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.