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 Ravenna it runs 339 km to Ravenna; allow about 6 h 17 of riding. 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.
San Vitale does not look like much from the outside. It is a squat octagon of plain brick, built in the sixth century, and the first reaction of many visitors is mild surprise. Then you step through the door and the interior opens up in layers of marble, arches and light, and the apse is covered in mosaic so bright it seems to glow. It was begun under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric's rule, around 526, and finished and consecrated under Byzantine rule in 547, in the years after Justinian's generals had reconquered Italy.
Read the complete Church of St. Vitale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of St. Vitale 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 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, 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 Church of St. Vitale, 65 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of St. Vitale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of St. Vitale. That is the ride.
Church of St. Vitale → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 64 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 → Church of St. Vitale is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.