Lake Bracciano Easy Scenic
A 96 km loop
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Why this ride
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. 96 km round from Rome - plan on about 1 h 45 of riding. The plan has 1 food stop marked.
Roadbook
- Rome
start
Rome is the end of the line for the Mille Miglia, or at least the halfway mark, because the old race ran out from Brescia to Rome and back again, a thousand Italian miles in all, which is where the name comes from. It ran from 1927 until 1957, mostly through towns and villages with the roads left open and crowds standing at the kerb, and the drivers flew down the Via Cassia and through the Apennine passes at speeds that make the whole thing seem barely believable now. It ended after a crash in 1957 that killed spectators, and was later revived as a rolling classic-car parade, which still comes through Rome every spring.
Riding in Rome itself needs a particular frame of mind. The streets are old, narrow and often cobbled with the little black basalt blocks called sampietrini, which are slippery when wet and punishing on a heavy bike. Scooters pour past on both sides, buses own the bus lanes, and drivers use their horns as punctuation. Much of the historic centre is a restricted traffic zone, the ZTL, where entry without a permit earns a fine by camera, and motorcycles are not exempt in every area, so check before you go and park outside it. The ring road, the GRA, is fast, busy and sometimes badly surfaced.
The reward is that few cities pay you back so well for the trouble. Early morning, when the streets are washed and empty, the Colosseum and the Forum seem to have been waiting for you. A few hundred metres from the Vatican, the dome of St Peter's rises over a skyline of pines, domes and terracotta roofs. The Appian Way, built in 312 BC, still runs south from the city with its old basalt paving, tombs and cypress trees, and it is one of the finest places in Italy for a slow ride on a Sunday, when parts of it are closed to cars.
There is no problem finding petrol, food or coffee, since a city of over two million does not run short, and a coffee taken standing at a bar for a euro or so is one of the pleasures of Italian life. Try carbonara, cacio e pepe or supplì, and keep away from restaurants that put photographs of the dishes on the door.
Spring and autumn are best, as summer heat is severe and August half-empties the city, with many places closed.
- Bracciano
food
Lake Bracciano fills an ancient volcanic crater about forty kilometres north-west of Rome, and from the castle walls of the town that bears its name, the water stretches out almost perfectly round, ringed by wooded hills. The lake is a reserve of drinking water for Rome, and motorboats are heavily restricted, which keeps the water clean and the atmosphere peaceful. In summer, Romans come to swim from the black volcanic sand beaches and eat lake fish in the restaurants along the shore.
The town of Bracciano is dominated by the Castello Orsini-Odescalchi, a magnificent fifteenth-century fortress with round towers, built by the Orsini family, one of the great baronial clans of medieval and Renaissance Rome. It is one of the best-preserved castles in Italy, with frescoed rooms, armour and views over the lake, and it has been used for films and celebrity weddings, including that of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in 2006. The old town around the castle is a maze of narrow streets.
The lake is ringed by a road that links Bracciano with the other lakeside towns, Anguillara Sabazia and Trevignano Romano, each with its own character and restaurants. The road is pleasant rather than challenging, with gentle curves through woods and along the shore, and views across the water. In the hills around the lake, the roads become more winding, passing through chestnut woods and hazelnut groves, and Lake Martignano, a smaller crater lake nearby, is a quiet place for a swim.
Bracciano has bars, restaurants and fuel, and it is an easy place for a lunch stop. The traffic can be heavy on summer weekends, when Romans flock to the lake, and the roads from Rome, especially the Via Braccianese, are often congested. Weekdays are much quieter. The best time to come is late spring or early autumn, when the weather is warm but not oppressive, and the lake is calm.
- Rome finish