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 297 km round trip from Ascoli Piceno - roughly 5 h 38 in the saddle. On the way it passes Teatro Serpente Aureo, Teatro dell'Aquila, Teatro Lauro Rossi and Teatro Feronia. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Teatro Ventidio Basso
Ascoli Piceno is made of travertine, and in the right light the whole town looks like it has been carved from cream. The pale stone paves the great Piazza del Popolo and lines the arcades and towers, and the theatre is one of the quiet treats of a place that rarely makes the big lists. It is named after Ventidio Basso, a local boy who rose from humble beginnings to become a general under Mark Antony, defeated the Parthians in the first century BC and, so the story goes, was the first Roman to hold a triumph over them. The people of Ascoli remember it with civic pride.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Teatro Ventidio Basso is where the day begins. Next is Teatro Serpente Aureo.
2. Teatro Serpente Aureo
Offida sits on a ridge in the southern Marche, a small walled town of brick and stone looking across rolling hills towards the Adriatic in one direction and the Monti Sibillini in the other. In the arcaded town hall on the main square hides one of the region's many jewel-box theatres, the Serpente Aureo, the Golden Serpent, with its horseshoe of boxes, gilded decoration and painted ceiling. The Marche has dozens of these little opera houses, built when every proud town wanted its own stage, and this one is among the prettiest, small enough that you feel you are in someone's very ornate living room.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Teatro Serpente Aureo comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Teatro dell'Aquila.
3. Teatro dell'Aquila
Fermo sits on a hill above the Adriatic, and its theatre is the jewel inside the town. The Teatro dell'Aquila was built in the late eighteenth century, designed by the architect Cosimo Morelli, and it is one of the largest and finest historic theatres in the Marche, a region that has an extraordinary number of them, almost every town having its own little opera house. Inside, tiers of gilded boxes rise in a horseshoe around the stalls, and the painted ceiling glows above. If you can catch a performance, or join a guided visit, do so.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Teatro dell'Aquila. Next is Teatro Lauro Rossi.
4. Teatro Lauro Rossi
Macerata is a hill town that takes its culture seriously, and the Teatro Lauro Rossi is the polished little jewel in the middle of it. Built in the second half of the eighteenth century in the heart of the old centre, it is a classic Italian horseshoe theatre with tiers of boxes in cream and gold, and it carries the name of Lauro Rossi, a nineteenth-century composer born in the town. If the doors are open, step in for a look; the room is intimate enough that you can imagine the whole town crammed in for a premiere, gossiping between acts.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Teatro Lauro Rossi, about halfway. Next is Teatro Feronia.
5. Teatro Feronia
San Severino Marche has one of the most unusual town squares in Italy. The Piazza del Popolo is an elongated ellipse, lined with arcades and palaces, and it was originally a market space outside the walls of the medieval town on the hill above. Today it is the heart of a town of eight thousand people in the valley of the Potenza river, in the inland Marche, and the Teatro Feronia stands on it, an elegant nineteenth-century theatre named after an ancient Italic goddess of fertility and freedom.