Evaporiti di San Leo and Gessi di Onferno

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Evaporiti di San Leo

   San Leo stands on a limestone block that rises sheer out of the Marecchia valley, and from a distance it looks like a fortress that nobody could possibly have captured. The ground under it tells a longer and stranger story. The evaporite rocks in this area, gypsum and associated salts, were laid down around six million years ago, when the Mediterranean nearly dried out in what geologists call the Messinian salinity crisis. Seawater evaporated, minerals crystallised, and the beds you see in the cuttings are the leftovers of that event.

   Read the complete Evaporiti di San Leo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Evaporiti di San Leo is where the day begins. Next is Teatro Angelo Mariani.

2. 2. Teatro Angelo Mariani

   Sant'Agata Feltria is a small hill town in the upper Marecchia valley, with a castle on a rock, steep streets and one of the oldest wooden theatres in Italy. The Teatro Angelo Mariani dates from the early seventeenth century and has been rebuilt and restored over the centuries, with tiers of wooden boxes painted in soft colours around a small stage. It is named after Angelo Mariani, a nineteenth-century conductor who was a close collaborator of Verdi. The theatre is intimate, seating a few hundred at most, and it still hosts concerts and plays.

   Read the complete Teatro Angelo Mariani write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Teatro Angelo Mariani comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gessi di Onferno.

3. 3. Gessi di Onferno

   The hills behind Rimini hide a surprising piece of geology. Around the hamlet of Onferno, in the comune of Gemmano, the ground is made of gypsum, laid down when the Mediterranean dried out millions of years ago and then pushed up into these ridges. Water dissolves gypsum easily, so the landscape is pocked with sinkholes, blind valleys and caves, and the Grotta di Onferno winds for hundreds of metres beneath the village. The name is often linked to inferno, supposedly because vapour rising from the cave mouth in cold weather looked like the breath of hell.

   Read the complete Gessi di Onferno write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Gessi di Onferno. Next is back through Teatro Angelo Mariani.

4. 4. back through Teatro Angelo Mariani

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Teatro Angelo Mariani write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Teatro Angelo Mariani, late in the day. Next is Evaporiti di San Leo.

5. 5. Evaporiti di San Leo

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Evaporiti di San Leo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Evaporiti di San Leo. That is the ride.