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 Bologna it runs 247 km to Bologna; allow about 4 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, Villa de Cafaggiolo and back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola. The line favours views over speed.
Bologna is a city of arcades, and the longest ones stretch for miles. The porticoes, built over the centuries to give shelter from sun and rain, and to add room to the upper storeys, run for tens of kilometres through the old centre and out to the sanctuary of San Luca on a hill south of the city. UNESCO listed them in 2021. Via Galliera, the long street leading north from the centre towards Porta Galliera, is a good place to walk under them, with palaces, churches and shops on one side and the shade of the vaults on the other.
Read the complete Galliera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Galliera is where the day begins. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 49 km on.
The Santerno valley climbs south from Imola into the Apennines toward Tuscany, and about fifteen kilometres up, the river cuts through a ridge of shining grey-white rock. This is the western end of the Vena del Gesso Romagnola, the gypsum vein that runs across this part of Romagna, and Monte Penzola rises above the village of Borgo Tossignano, with Fontanelice and Casalfiumanese nearby.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de Cafaggiolo.
In the green bowl of the Mugello, north of Florence, the Medici family kept a house long before they ruled the city. Cafaggiolo was an old family property, and around the middle of the fifteenth century Cosimo the Elder had the architect Michelozzo transform it into a fortified country villa, with battlements, a tower and a moat, a cross between a castle and a farmhouse. Lorenzo the Magnificent spent time here as a boy, and the villa became a favourite retreat for hunting and escaping the plague in the city. It is one of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany listed by UNESCO, and visits depend on current restoration and opening arrangements, so check before you arrive.
Read the complete Villa de Cafaggiolo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 124 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa de Cafaggiolo. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 49 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, late in the day. Next is Galliera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Galliera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Galliera. That is the ride.
Galliera → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola → Villa de Cafaggiolo is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Cafaggiolo → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola → Galliera is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.