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.
450 km from Corfu to Corfu, about 11 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra, Butrint, Museum-City of Gjirokastra and back through Butrint. It crosses from Greece into Albania - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
72 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 68 km this is Albanian Riviera, SH8, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Corfu is where the Greek world met Venice, and the old town shows it in every lane. For more than four centuries, from the late fourteenth century to the end of the eighteenth, the island belonged to the Venetian Republic, which fortified it against the Ottomans, so the town has two great fortresses, tall narrow houses with washing lines, and a maze of alleys called kantounia, which are cooler and more intimate than any grand boulevard. UNESCO listed the old town in 2007. The French arrived briefly under Napoleon and left the Liston, an arcade modelled on Paris's Rue de Rivoli, and the British, who ruled the islands from 1815 to 1864, left cricket, which is still played on the Spianada, the broad green esplanade by the sea, and ginger beer, called tsitsibira.
Read the complete Old Town of Corfu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Town of Corfu is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra.
Gjirokastër is built of stone, and it means that literally. The old houses climbing the slopes below the castle are made of grey limestone, roofed with heavy slabs of the same stone, and tall and narrow like small fortresses, with the lower floors used for storage and cisterns and the living quarters above. The town grew under Ottoman rule, and its architecture, preserved as a museum town in the communist era, earned it a place on the UNESCO list in 2005, with Berat added in 2008. The castle, one of the largest in the Balkans, holds a collection of artillery, a captured American aircraft from the Cold War, and a prison with a grim history.
Read the complete Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is Butrint.
At the southern tip of Albania, on a wooded headland between a lagoon and the narrow Vivari channel, the ruins of Butrint have been layering up for close to three thousand years. Greek colonists from Corfu, just across the strait, built a sanctuary and a theatre here; the Romans made it a colony and added baths, an aqueduct and villas; the Byzantines raised a great baptistery with a mosaic floor of birds and animals; and the Venetians left a fortified tower and a triangular castle by the water. Wandering the shaded paths among laurel and eucalyptus, you move from one century to the next in a few steps, with frogs croaking in the flooded parts of the agora and the lagoon glinting through the trees. The site has been on the UNESCO list since 1992 and is the heart of a national park.
Read the complete Butrint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 156 km into the recorded legs you reach Butrint. Next is Museum-City of Gjirokastra.
Gjirokastër is a city of stone, and it makes you look up. Houses with thick walls and slate roofs, many built as tower-like fortified homes called kulla, climb the steep hillside under a huge castle, and the cobbled lanes that link them are so slanted that you will think twice about riding up them. The old town was recognised by UNESCO in 2005 as a rare surviving example of an Ottoman town with its character intact, and it has a dignified, slightly melancholy air.
Read the complete Museum-City of Gjirokastra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Museum-City of Gjirokastra, about halfway. Next is back through Butrint.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Butrint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Butrint sits at 233 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra comes up about 362 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Town of Corfu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Town of Corfu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Town of Corfu closes the day.
Old Town of Corfu → Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra → Butrint is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Butrint → Museum-City of Gjirokastra is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Museum-City of Gjirokastra → back through Butrint is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Butrint → back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra → Old Town of Corfu is 88 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.