In spite of the great attraction that is the sea, of seaside wellness and the unconditional development of coastal hotels born under the sign of “reminization”, Romagna, the province that has most bet on anti-melancholy, has launched a new cycle route. hinterland that apparently looks distracted and from afar to the beaches of the Adriatic.
A bet against the trend that has its own specific reason for being. Promoted by the Apt Emilia Romagna with a first group ride during the last edition of the Italian Bike Festival in Misano Adriatico, the Via Romagna is a path of 460 km and 6,500 meters in altitude that unites, on mainly asphalted roads (with 60 km of dirt roads), with low traffic and landscape value, the small lagoon town of Comacchio, in the Po Delta, in San Giovanni in Marignano, the gateway to the Conca Valley, just south of Cattolica.
“The route – says Chiara Astolfi, director of VisitRomagna – was conceived as a flywheel for the development of inland areas”, those hills between Montefeltro and Spungone that gently lower to the Po Delta, ringing small medieval villages: San Leo with its mighty Rocca; Pennabilli, the poetic homeland of Tonino Guerra; Bagno di Romagna, gateway to the Casentinesi Forests Park; Bertinoro with his good wine; Brisighella, among the most beautiful villages in Italy.
A silent land that combines forest with arable land, cherry trees with chestnut trees, good agricultural practices with unique fragments of history, from which the Adriatic is a hint of blue on the horizon or a reflection of lights when night falls.
Six stages for 400 kilometers
Mapped by Marco Selleri and Marco Pavarini, organizers of the Giro d’Italia under 23, the Via Romagna is now entrusted to the consultancy of Via Panoramica Cycling for the identification of services for cyclists along the entire cycle path and in particular at the end of each of the six stages of about 70 km per day in which it is ideally divided: Imola, Castrocaro Terme, Bagno di Romagna, Pennabilli, Montescudo and San Giovanni Marignano.