RSF - The Off Road Cycling Club

An unusual route in a very urban environment - the city of Rome. What do you do if you live here and need to ride out to the hills without taking your life in your hands? Here's Robertos answer.

Riding the main roads departing from Rome, on Sunday rides towards the hills and the volcanic lakes (Albano and Nemi) in the Castelli Romani Regional Park, takes forever: You pedal staring at your stem, between close-passing cars and rubbish or dead once-were-animals, asking yourself why the hell you’re doing this. Most of those main roads run through soulless outskirts and wastelands. A necessary toll, sort of, you have to pay to reach better places and landscapes, or otherwise to go back home after your bicycle ride.

What if there was an alternative? If you get bored, you will need to get un-bored — I told myself. I tried, therefore, to look at my own city with different eyes, to find out some rough stuff riding possibilities, studying the city map for a viable alternative to the boredom of big roads. A route was traced and tested, since then, making do with every chance I was offered to avoid busy roads and tarmac. I managed finding out something quite unexpected, and interesting: I put together a 20 kilometers route that connects spectacular archaeological sites, ancient roads, dirt paths, less traveled backroads, country dirt tracks, disused cycle paths and public gardens.