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 439 km round trip from Sesto Fiorentino - roughly 7 h 34 in the saddle. It goes by way of Sasso Fratino, Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino and back through Sasso Fratino. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
La Petraia stands on the slope above Castello, on the north-western edge of Florence, and the first thing you notice is its tower, a leftover from the medieval fortress that stood here before the Medici made it a villa. Ferdinando de' Medici bought it in the 1560s and had Buontalenti reshape it, keeping the tower and building around it, so that the house looks like a small castle that learned manners. The garden below is laid out in terraces, with a fountain topped by a Venus wringing out her hair, a famous work by Giambologna.
Read the complete Villa de la Petraia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de la Petraia is where the day begins. Next is Sasso Fratino.
Sasso Fratino is a forest you are not allowed to enter, and that is precisely the point. High on the Romagna side of the Apennine ridge, in the national park of the Casentino forests, it was declared Italy's first integral nature reserve in 1959, and since then nature has been left almost entirely to itself. Ancient beech woods cling to steep slopes, with silver fir, maple and ash mixed in, and dead trees are left to rot where they fall, feeding fungi, beetles and birds. In 2017 it became part of the transnational World Heritage listing of ancient beech forests of Europe.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sasso Fratino comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino, 64 km on.
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.
about 220 km into the recorded legs you reach Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino. Next is back through Sasso Fratino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sasso Fratino, late in the day. Next is Villa de la Petraia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de la Petraia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Villa de la Petraia. That is the ride.
Villa de la Petraia → Sasso Fratino is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sasso Fratino → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino is 150 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Casino → back through Sasso Fratino is 149 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sasso Fratino → Villa de la Petraia is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.