Why this ride
A 255 km round trip from San Leo - roughly 6 h 03 in the saddle. The stops in between: Teatro Bramante, Gessi di Onferno, Historic Centre of Urbino and back through Gessi di Onferno.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Evaporiti di San Leo and Historic Centre of Urbino
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 255 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 03
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
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 Bramante.
2. Teatro Bramante
Urbania has had three names. It began as Castel delle Ripe, became Casteldurante in the thirteenth century, and was renamed in 1636 when Pope Urban VIII took over the duchy and gave it his own. In the Renaissance it was a pottery town, famous for majolica, the tin-glazed painted earthenware that Duke Guidobaldo and his court sent as gifts around Europe, and the ceramics still sold in the shops carry on that tradition. The theatre that bears the name of Bramante, the great architect who was born in nearby Fermignano, stands in the town centre, a small, intimate house with tiers of boxes in the Italian manner, and the town itself is a small walled place on a bend of the Metauro river, with brick arcades and a handsome ducal palace.
Read the complete Teatro Bramante write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Teatro Bramante comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gessi di Onferno.
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 91 km into the recorded legs you reach Gessi di Onferno. Next is Historic Centre of Urbino.
4. Historic Centre of Urbino
Urbino is a whole hill turned into an idea. In the fifteenth century Federico da Montefeltro, a professional soldier who earned a fortune leading other people's armies, used it to build one of the most refined courts in Renaissance Italy, and the town that grew around his palace is still almost entirely brick and stone of that age. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1998, and it remains a lively university town rather than a museum.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Urbino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historic Centre of Urbino, about halfway. Next is back through Gessi di Onferno.
5. back through Gessi di Onferno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Gessi di Onferno sits at 130 km, about halfway. Next is back through Teatro Bramante.
6. back through Teatro Bramante
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Teatro Bramante write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Teatro Bramante comes up about 211 km into the recorded legs. Next is Evaporiti di San Leo.
7. 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
Evaporiti di San Leo closes the day.
Leg by leg
Evaporiti di San Leo to Teatro Bramante
Evaporiti di San Leo → Teatro Bramante is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Teatro Bramante to Gessi di Onferno
Teatro Bramante → Gessi di Onferno is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gessi di Onferno to Historic Centre of Urbino
Gessi di Onferno → Historic Centre of Urbino is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Urbino to back through Gessi di Onferno
Historic Centre of Urbino → back through Gessi di Onferno is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gessi di Onferno to back through Teatro Bramante
back through Gessi di Onferno → back through Teatro Bramante is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Teatro Bramante to Evaporiti di San Leo
back through Teatro Bramante → Evaporiti di San Leo is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.