Why this ride
A 439 km round trip from Tarquinia - roughly 8 h 25 in the saddle. On the way it passes Monte Raschio, Monte Cimino, Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti and Assisi. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Tarquinia and Assisi
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 439 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 25
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Tarquinia
Tarquinia sits on a hill a few kilometres inland from the Tyrrhenian coast, in the northern tip of Lazio where the land starts to feel more like Tuscany. The town was called Corneto until 1922, when it took back the name of the Etruscan city of Tarchna that once stood on the neighbouring plateau. The old centre is tight, brownish stone, medieval towers, and a few good small piazzas; the main reason people come, though, lies on the Monterozzi ridge just outside, where the Etruscans built their necropolis.
Read the complete Tarquinia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tarquinia is where the day begins. Next is Monte Raschio.
2. Monte Raschio
Beech trees usually need altitude and cool weather in central Italy, so it is a surprise to find a beech forest at only about five hundred metres on Monte Raschio, a low volcanic hill near Oriolo Romano, north-west of Rome. The forest survives here thanks to a local microclimate, with humidity from Lake Bracciano and the volcanic soils, and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a site that spans many countries.
Read the complete Monte Raschio write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monte Raschio comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monte Cimino.
3. Monte Cimino
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Monte Cimino. Next is Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti.
4. Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-born composer who made his career in America, and in 1958 he decided that Spoleto, a small hill town in Umbria, would be the right home for a festival that brought together artists from both sides of the Atlantic. That is the origin of the Festival dei Due Mondi, the Festival of Two Worlds, which still fills the town with opera, theatre, dance and music every year in late June and July. The theatre that bears his name, the Teatro Nuovo, was built in the nineteenth century and is the main stage, a handsome horseshoe with gilt boxes and a painted ceiling.
Read the complete Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti, about halfway. Next is Assisi.
5. Assisi
From the valley floor Assisi looks like a long pale ribbon draped across the lower slope of Monte Subasio, and the colour comes from the mountain itself. The town is built of Subasio stone, a limestone that ranges from cream to rose, and in the evening light the whole place glows pink. It is, of course, the town of Francis, the merchant's son who gave away everything in the early thirteenth century and founded the Franciscan order, and of Clare, who followed him. The great basilica built over his tomb, begun in 1228, has two churches one above the other, and the frescoes inside, including the cycle of the saint's life traditionally attributed to Giotto, changed the course of European painting.
Read the complete Assisi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Assisi sits at 208 km, about halfway. Next is back through Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti.
6. back through Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti comes up about 266 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Monte Cimino.
7. back through Monte Cimino
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monte Cimino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 347 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Monte Cimino. Next is back through Monte Raschio.
8. back through Monte Raschio
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monte Raschio write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Monte Raschio, late in the day. Next is Tarquinia.
9. Tarquinia
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tarquinia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 439 km.
Leg by leg
Tarquinia to Monte Raschio
Tarquinia → Monte Raschio is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monte Raschio to Monte Cimino
Monte Raschio → Monte Cimino is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monte Cimino to Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti
Monte Cimino → Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti to Assisi
Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti → Assisi is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Assisi to back through Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti
Assisi → back through Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti to back through Monte Cimino
back through Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti → back through Monte Cimino is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Monte Cimino to back through Monte Raschio
back through Monte Cimino → back through Monte Raschio is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monte Raschio to Tarquinia
back through Monte Raschio → Tarquinia is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.