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.
From Classe it runs 341 km to Classe; allow about 6 h 25 of riding. It goes by way of 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. The line favours views over speed.
For centuries the sea reached this field. Classe was the port of Ravenna, a harbour built by Augustus to station the Roman Adriatic fleet, and merchants, sailors and soldiers filled its quays until the river silt choked the channels and the coast crept east. Today the port is farmland, the sea is five kilometres off, and the great church of Sant'Apollinare stands alone among the fields, a tall brick basilica with a round bell tower, rising from the plain like a ship stranded on a sandbank. It was consecrated in 549, in the time of Justinian, and stands over the tomb of the first bishop of Ravenna, Apollinaris, who is said to have been a disciple of Saint Peter. UNESCO listed the early Christian monuments of Ravenna in 1996.
Read the complete Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe 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 68 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 173 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 Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe, 66 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe. That is the ride.
Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 68 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 → Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.