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.
From Fondi it runs 427 km to Fondi; allow about 6 h 55 of riding. The stops in between: Abruzzo, Villa d'Este and back through Abruzzo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Via Appia, the queen of Roman roads, runs straight through the middle of Fondi, and the town's grid of streets still follows the plan of the Roman settlement it once was. Built from 312 BC to link Rome with Capua and later extended to Brindisi, the Appia crossed the coastal plain here, between the mountains and the sea, and Fondi grew up around it as a stopping place. In the historic centre, the main street follows the line of the ancient road, and stretches of the Roman walls survive, built of huge polygonal blocks. The Via Appia was recognised by UNESCO in 2024 as a World Heritage Site, with Fondi as one of its components.
Read the complete The Via Appia in Fundi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Via Appia in Fundi is where the day begins. Next is Abruzzo.
Abruzzo is the part of Italy that most Italians forget to brag about, which is probably why it is still so wild. It protects one of the last populations of the Marsican brown bear, a distinct subspecies that survives in the low hundreds at best, as well as wolves, chamois and red deer. You are unlikely to see a bear from the saddle, but the signs on the road warning of animal crossings are not decoration.
Read the complete Abruzzo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abruzzo comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa d'Este.
Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este, son of Lucrezia Borgia, had expected to become pope. When that did not happen, he was made governor of Tivoli and consoled himself by turning an old Benedictine convent on the hillside into a villa with a garden that would astonish Europe. Built in the sixteenth century, the Villa d'Este is a hillside of terraces, stairs and fountains, all fed by gravity from the river Aniene: the Hundred Fountains, a long wall of spouting masks and eagles, the Fountain of the Organ, which plays music driven by water, and the Oval Fountain, with its cascade falling into a pool. The villa and its gardens are a World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Villa d'Este write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 213 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa d'Este. Next is back through Abruzzo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abruzzo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abruzzo, late in the day. Next is The Via Appia in Fundi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Via Appia in Fundi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at The Via Appia in Fundi. That is the ride.
The Via Appia in Fundi → Abruzzo is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Abruzzo → Villa d'Este is 117 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Villa d'Este → back through Abruzzo is 118 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Abruzzo → The Via Appia in Fundi is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.