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 368 km round trip from Sassofeltrio - roughly 6 h 59 in the saddle. On the way it passes Sasso Fratino, Villa de la Petraia and back through Sasso Fratino. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gessi di Onferno is where the day begins. 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.
Sasso Fratino comes up about 114 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de la Petraia.
La Petraia stands on the slope above Castello, on the north-western edge of Florence, and the first thing you notice is its tower, a leftover from the medieval fortress that stood here before the Medici made it a villa. Ferdinando de' Medici bought it in the 1560s and had Buontalenti reshape it, keeping the tower and building around it, so that the house looks like a small castle that learned manners. The garden below is laid out in terraces, with a fountain topped by a Venus wringing out her hair, a famous work by Giambologna.
Read the complete Villa de la Petraia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 183 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa de la Petraia. Next is back through Sasso Fratino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sasso Fratino, late in the day. Next is Gessi di Onferno.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gessi di Onferno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Gessi di Onferno. That is the ride.
Gessi di Onferno → Sasso Fratino is 114 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sasso Fratino → Villa de la Petraia is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de la Petraia → back through Sasso Fratino is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sasso Fratino → Gessi di Onferno is 114 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.