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.
A 291 km round trip from Spoleto - roughly 4 h 40 in the saddle. On the way it passes Assisi, Teatro Gentile da Fabriano, Teatro Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and back through Teatro Gentile da Fabriano. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Spoleto is a hill town in Umbria with a past much longer than most people expect. It was a Roman colony, then the capital of a Lombard duchy, and the Lombards, who came into Italy in the sixth century, ruled a great swathe of the peninsula from here. The basilica of San Salvatore lies just outside the old centre, below the hill, and few churches in Italy are older, dating from the fourth or fifth century and reshaped in the early Middle Ages. Its pale, plain facade looks classical, with a triple doorway and carved frieze, because its builders reused Roman fragments and copied Roman forms.
Read the complete The basilica of San Salvatore write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The basilica of San Salvatore is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Assisi comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Teatro Gentile da Fabriano.
Paper made Fabriano. Since at least the thirteenth century, craftsmen in this inland town of the Marche have made paper, and they are credited with key innovations: the use of animal gelatine to size the sheets and, most famously, the watermark. Fabriano paper is still made here today, and the Museo della Carta e della Filigrana, in a former monastery, shows the old techniques with working demonstrations. Your banknotes may well have been printed on paper from this town.
Read the complete Teatro Gentile da Fabriano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Teatro Gentile da Fabriano. Next is Teatro Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
The people of Jesi take their opera seriously, and they have a reason. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was born here in 1710, and by the time he died in 1736, at the age of twenty-six, he had written the Stabat Mater and the comic opera La serva padrona, two works that changed music. The theatre that carries his name was opened in 1798, a neoclassical jewel with tiers of boxes and a good-sized stage, in the heart of the old town on the main square. It still has a season, and a ticket for an evening performance is a treat if you are staying nearby.
Read the complete Teatro Giovanni Battista Pergolesi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Teatro Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, about halfway. Next is back through Teatro Gentile da Fabriano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Teatro Gentile da Fabriano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Teatro Gentile da Fabriano sits at 197 km, about halfway. Next is back through Assisi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Assisi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Assisi comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is The basilica of San Salvatore.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The basilica of San Salvatore write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The basilica of San Salvatore closes the day.
The basilica of San Salvatore → Assisi is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Assisi → Teatro Gentile da Fabriano is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Teatro Gentile da Fabriano → Teatro Giovanni Battista Pergolesi is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Teatro Giovanni Battista Pergolesi → back through Teatro Gentile da Fabriano is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Teatro Gentile da Fabriano → back through Assisi is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Assisi → The basilica of San Salvatore is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.