CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 293 km round trip from Borgo Tossignano - roughly 5 h 10 in the saddle. The stops in between: Archiepiscopal Chapel, Evaporiti di San Leo and back through Archiepiscopal Chapel. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Crystals the size of a hand catch the sun along the Vena del Gesso, a ridge of selenite gypsum that runs for some twenty-five kilometres across the hills of Romagna, from the Sillaro valley to the Lamone. The rock formed millions of years ago when the Mediterranean dried up and its salts were deposited, and it has since been carved by water into caves, sinkholes and blind valleys. In 2023, UNESCO listed the evaporite karst and caves of the northern Apennines, and the Vena del Gesso is the heart of it. Monte Casino is one of the peaks on the ridge, near Borgo Tossignano and Casola Valsenio.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is where the day begins. Next is Archiepiscopal Chapel.
Ravenna was the capital of the western Roman empire in the fifth century, then of the Ostrogothic kingdom under Theodoric and later of Byzantine Italy, and each of these rulers left a layer of mosaics that glitter in the dark. The Archiepiscopal Chapel, dedicated to Sant'Andrea, was built around the year 500 by Theodoric, who was an Arian Christian, and its vault and walls are covered in gold and white mosaics of birds, flowers, and a Christ dressed as a Roman soldier, trampling a lion and a serpent. It is a tiny space, barely big enough for a small group, but the effect is astonishing.
Read the complete Archiepiscopal Chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Archiepiscopal Chapel comes up 71 km in. Next is Evaporiti di San Leo.
San Leo stands on a limestone block that rises sheer out of the Marecchia valley, and from a distance it looks like a fortress that nobody could possibly have captured. The ground under it tells a longer and stranger story. The evaporite rocks in this area, gypsum and associated salts, were laid down around six million years ago, when the Mediterranean nearly dried out in what geologists call the Messinian salinity crisis. Seawater evaporated, minerals crystallised, and the beds you see in the cuttings are the leftovers of that event.
Read the complete Evaporiti di San Leo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
141 km in you reach Evaporiti di San Leo. Next is back through Archiepiscopal Chapel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Archiepiscopal Chapel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Archiepiscopal Chapel, late in the day. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 70 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino. That is the ride.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → Archiepiscopal Chapel is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Archiepiscopal Chapel → Evaporiti di San Leo is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Evaporiti di San Leo → back through Archiepiscopal Chapel is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Archiepiscopal Chapel → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.