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 284 km round trip from San Leo - roughly 5 h 15 in the saddle. On the way it passes Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe, Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino and back through Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Evaporiti di San Leo is where the day begins. Next is Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe, 69 km on.
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 comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 69 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.
about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino. Next is back through Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe, 68 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 through Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe, late in the day. Next is Evaporiti di San Leo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Evaporiti di San Leo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Evaporiti di San Leo. That is the ride.
Evaporiti di San Leo → Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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 → back through Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe → Evaporiti di San Leo is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.