The Balkan Mountains: eight days on the wild East
As we drive up the road that will take us to the border with Bosnia, we are literally the favourite target of cars, taxis and lorries, which from Dubrovnik nervously drive up the slope that divides Croatia from Bosnian territory. We had the…
Cavarzano Pass
A quick round of hairpin bends moves through the Matilda chestnut groves, before unraveling and climbing inexorably to the 1,000-meter elevation. The first few kilometers are generous, but the closer we get to the Alpe, the more uncertain the terrain becomes. All in…
Winter Line
“Liver and onions” sounds strange, but here it is a household name. Not so much because of a supposedly typical local dish, but because in October ’44 Livergnano must have sounded like an all-too-complicated name to the American battalions, who had to resort…
The Jump Off
The Jump Off is a 90km route that starts in Bologna and climbs the ridges drawn by three streams: Samoggia, Lavino and the smaller Venola. The Jump Off is primarily about the military operation in this sector of the Gothic Line, which took…
Salt Trail
There are many salt routes: ancient trade routes born of the need to connect territories far from the sea to the coasts, ensuring access to this precious resource. In some cases this need did not stop even in the face of territories that…
Corsica Road Trippin’
CRT is a 500-kilometer loop bikepacking route with 8.000 meters of elevation gain mostly on asphalt that traverses the northern area of Corsica. The island has every possible landscape variable in its deck, changing at every turn from mountain ranges that seem to…
Landscapes of Limentre
The roads that spreads along the ridges offer distinctly Apennine vistas, but completely unusual even for those used to riding the mountain profiles of these areas. This is the last ruote that explores the ancient landscapes of the Limentre valley, a mountain area…
Faggeta Path
Well before the construction of the Porrettana road, well before its progenitor Leopoldina, the mountain territories had a rather different road network. There was in fact a complex system of roads and paths strictly controlled by the customs that regulated access between the…