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 312 km round trip from Soriano nel Cimino - roughly 5 h 32 in the saddle. On the way it passes Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar, Villa Adriana and back through Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 86 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Monte Cimino is the highest point of the Cimini hills, an old volcanic range rising to just over a thousand metres between Viterbo and the Tiber valley in northern Lazio. Its top is clothed in one of the most beautiful beech forests in Italy, unusually low for beech in this latitude, and UNESCO counts these trees among Europe's ancient beech forests. On a hot summer day, climbing into its shade from the baking plain feels like entering a cathedral.
Read the complete Monte Cimino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monte Cimino is where the day begins. Next is Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar.
The Etruscans built their houses of wood and mud brick, which is why so few survive, and they built their tombs of rock, which is why we know them best through their dead. The Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri, north-west of Rome, is a city of tombs: great round tumuli covered in grass, cut into the volcanic tufa and laid out along streets, with chambers inside carved to look like houses, with beds, chairs, columns and beams. The necropolis, together with the painted tombs of Tarquinia further north, was listed by UNESCO in 2004, and walking its lanes is one of the most atmospheric experiences in central Italy.
Read the complete Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Adriana.
Hadrian never did anything by halves. Below the hill town of Tivoli, on the plain east of Rome, the emperor built himself a retreat that was less a villa than a private city: palaces, baths, libraries, theatres, gardens and long reflecting pools spread over more than a hundred hectares. Villa Adriana was constructed in the early second century AD, and Hadrian, a restless traveller and amateur architect, filled it with references to places he had seen, most famously the Canopus, a long pool lined with columns and statues meant to evoke the Egyptian canal of that name. Walking through the ruins today, among cypresses and olive trees, you get a sense of a man trying to bring the whole empire home.
Read the complete Villa Adriana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Adriana. Next is back through Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar, late in the day. Next is Monte Cimino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monte Cimino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Monte Cimino. That is the ride.
Monte Cimino → Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar → Villa Adriana is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Villa Adriana → back through Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tar → Monte Cimino is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.