Edited by Michele Lauro
The Cesenatico seafront sets the stage for a long intricate circuit of the Romagna hills, before returning to the starting point after a day of ups and downs. The route points towards Cesena drawing a couple of right angles on the provincial roads that cut through the agricultural landscape, laps the southern suburbs past the busy Adriatic motorway and lands on the SS 9 in the direction of Forlimpopoli, an ancient transit and market place on the route between Forlì and Cesena.
From here, leave the plains for the Sangiovese hills and the splendid panoramic balconies of Bertinoro and Meldola in the lower Bidente valley, where Trajan had the mouth of the Ravenna aqueduct designed in the 2nd century. Ravenna was a Saracen Market, an ancient mercantile centre lying on three alluvial terraces along a meander of the Savio river. Transit routes to Tuscany and Rome since the Middle Ages, the history of these valleys was linked to the destinies of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States for some time. After passing the Barbotto hill, enter the Romagna part of Montefeltro, a harsh land of divisions and tormented stories including the struggles between Montefeltro itself and Malatesta.
The morphology of this territory and its border position have made administrative and political unification difficult up to the present day. This is demonstrated by the firm autonomy of the nearby Republic of San Marino and the recent administrative transfer from the Marche to Emilia-Romagna of the wonderful villages perched on the cliffs, guarding the fertile countryside: arrive at Perticara, Novafeltria and San Leo after a fleeting foray into the Marche, touching off the church of Madonna di Pugliano, at almost 800 m. Always winding, the road crosses the Passo delle Siepi and then begins a slow descent towards the sea, still curving through the undulating countryside before the last 30 km, which are flat. A thought for Giovanni Pascoli and the bucolic memories he evokes, as we pass by San Mauro and, near the train station, another thought for the Pirate, Marco Pantani, and we are back at the Cesenatico seafront.
Seaside resort and one of the capitals of Adriatic fishing, it stretches around the canal port founded in 1302 by the city of Cesena, which intersects the Romea road with the bridge marked by two columns erected by the Venetians in 1581. The first bathing establishment opened here after the construction of the Rimini-Ravenna railway in 1880, and at the beginning of the 20th century, it became a prosperous garden city with the first marine colonies. They are now in disuse but the original structures, such as Agip and Enpas, still stand. In the internal section of the canal, enclosed by two bridges, the floating and land sections of the Maritime Museum face each other. Near the station, Spazio Pantani collects memorabilia and audio-visual materials in three large rooms named after the great peaks conquered by the Pirate, who was born in these parts in 1970.
Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.