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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 445 km round trip from Porto Torres - roughly 7 h 49 in the saddle. The stops in between: Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante, Petroglyph Park-a, Necropolis of Ispiluncas and Necropolis of Istevéne. The line favours views over speed.
Sardinians call them domus de janas, houses of the fairies, and when you crouch at the entrance of one you understand the name. They are tombs cut straight into the soft limestone by the island's Neolithic and Copper Age people, small chambers linked by low doorways, sometimes with carved false doors or bull horns on the walls. The necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu, just inland from Porto Torres, holds a couple of dozen of them scattered across a low rocky plateau among fields and scrub, one of the largest groups in the north of the island.
Read the complete Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu is where the day begins. Next is Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante.
On the side of the main road below Castelsardo, in northern Sardinia, a huge reddish rock stands alone at a bend, and it really does look like an elephant, trunk lowered, as if about to drink. It is a block of volcanic trachyte that broke away from the hills above and was sculpted by wind and rain into its strange shape. What most passing drivers miss is that its base was used long before anyone thought of elephants: two prehistoric tombs, domus de janas, were cut into the rock in the Neolithic period, and in one of them carved horn shapes, the symbol of the bull, can still be made out.
Read the complete Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Petroglyph Park-a.
The north-west of Sardinia is a country of low volcanic hills, pasture, cork oak and stone, and the villages of the Logudoro are small, quiet and far older than they look. This area, around Cheremule and Giave, is dotted with traces of a world that predates the Romans by a very long time. The island's prehistoric people carved tombs into soft rock, the domus de janas, which translates as fairy houses, and built round stone towers called nuraghi, of which there are thousands.
Read the complete Petroglyph Park-a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 118 km into the recorded legs you reach Petroglyph Park-a. Next is Necropolis of Ispiluncas.
In central Sardinia, on a slope above the village of Sedilo, a cluster of rock-cut tombs opens into the hillside like a row of small dark doorways. These are domus de janas, "houses of the fairies" in the local language, burial chambers carved into the soft rock by the island's prehistoric inhabitants several thousand years ago. Ispiluncas is one of the larger groups, with tombs of varied plans, some with multiple chambers and carved details imitating the beams and doorframes of houses. In 2025 the domus de janas were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, recognising one of the most distinctive funerary traditions in the Mediterranean.
Read the complete Necropolis of Ispiluncas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Ispiluncas, about halfway. Next is Necropolis of Istevéne.
In Sardinian folklore, the little rock-cut tombs scattered across the island were the homes of janas, tiny fairies or witches who wove on golden looms and came out at night. Archaeologists call them domus de janas, fairy houses, and date them to the Neolithic and Copper Age, thousands of years before the famous nuraghi towers. The necropolis of Istevéne, near Mamoiada in the heart of the Barbagia, is a group of these chambers cut into the granite, some with carved details imitating the beams and doorways of real houses, and it belongs among the prehistoric Sardinian tombs that have gained UNESCO recognition.
Read the complete Necropolis of Istevéne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Istevéne sits at 195 km, about halfway. Next is back through Necropolis of Ispiluncas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Ispiluncas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Necropolis of Ispiluncas comes up about 273 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Petroglyph Park-a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petroglyph Park-a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 327 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Petroglyph Park-a. Next is back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante, late in the day. Next is Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 445 km.
Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu → Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante → Petroglyph Park-a is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petroglyph Park-a → Necropolis of Ispiluncas is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Ispiluncas → Necropolis of Istevéne is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Istevéne → back through Necropolis of Ispiluncas is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Necropolis of Ispiluncas → back through Petroglyph Park-a is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Petroglyph Park-a → back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante → Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.