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.
254 km from Urbania to Urbania, about 6 h 11 of riding. On the way it passes Gessi di Onferno, Historic Centre of Urbino, San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titan and back through Historic Centre of Urbino. It crosses from Italy into San Marino - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Urbania has had three names. It began as Castel delle Ripe, became Casteldurante in the thirteenth century, and was renamed in 1636 when Pope Urban VIII took over the duchy and gave it his own. In the Renaissance it was a pottery town, famous for majolica, the tin-glazed painted earthenware that Duke Guidobaldo and his court sent as gifts around Europe, and the ceramics still sold in the shops carry on that tradition. The theatre that bears the name of Bramante, the great architect who was born in nearby Fermignano, stands in the town centre, a small, intimate house with tiers of boxes in the Italian manner, and the town itself is a small walled place on a bend of the Metauro river, with brick arcades and a handsome ducal palace.
Read the complete Teatro Bramante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Teatro Bramante is where the day begins. Next is Gessi di Onferno.
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 comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Urbino.
Urbino is a whole hill turned into an idea. In the fifteenth century Federico da Montefeltro, a professional soldier who earned a fortune leading other people's armies, used it to build one of the most refined courts in Renaissance Italy, and the town that grew around his palace is still almost entirely brick and stone of that age. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1998, and it remains a lively university town rather than a museum.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Urbino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Urbino. Next is San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titan.
San Marino is a whole country balanced on the ridge of a single mountain, and you feel it the moment the road starts to climb out of the coastal plain. Monte Titano rises steeply from the hills behind Rimini, a long limestone crest with sheer cliffs on its eastern side, and the old town of San Marino clings to the top with three towers strung along the ridge like stitches. The first, Guaita, is the oldest and the most photographed; the second, Cesta, sits on the highest point; the third, Montale, is a slender lookout you can only see from outside.
Read the complete San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titan, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Urbino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Urbino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Urbino sits at 123 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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 through Gessi di Onferno comes up about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is Teatro Bramante.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Teatro Bramante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Teatro Bramante closes the day.
Teatro Bramante → Gessi di Onferno is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gessi di Onferno → Historic Centre of Urbino is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Urbino → San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titan is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titan → back through Historic Centre of Urbino is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Urbino → back through Gessi di Onferno is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gessi di Onferno → Teatro Bramante is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.