In Pesaro: Monte San Bartolo OAB

May 9, 2023

I silently chafe as we rode the train up the Adriatic, watching the blue sea and sky flash by. With perfect foresight we’d have stayed in Termoli another day and taken advantage of today’s excellent weather and saved the train for tomorrow when rain is promised. In an unfortunate packing error though, we left our perfect foresight behind on this tour.

One of my strongest memories of our first visit to Pesaro three years ago was from leaving it, biking up the coast to Rimini on a fantastically scenic road that follows the crest of the mountainous ridge immediately north of town. Missing this ride is the one thing I have regrets about with our plan to leave here by train rather than biking up the coast.

Today looks like the only good weather we’re likely to see in our four night stay here, so as soon a we check in to our apartment I open up RideWithGPS to craft a route up that ridge. Sundown now isn’t until 8:20, so I’ve actually got time to fit in a pretty decent ride if I’m quick about it. I’m surprised and pleased to see that the best part of this ride is only about eleven miles, after which the road starts dropping toward the sea and the sprawling seaside resorts bracketing Rimini. There’s time enough left in the day for a 23 mile round trip, so as soon as Rachael returns from the store and loads the route for me, I’m off. In a last minute action, I notice with surprise that my glasses are still on the table and stuff them in the back of my shirt.

After biking a mile through town and crossing the Foglia River that runs to the sea here, I immediately start climbing a series of hairpin turns up the southern nose of the ridge. It’s not a bad climb, gaining five hundred feet in two miles at a fairly steady 5%. As I climb I enjoy steadily improving views back over Pesaro and out across the sea, and have a lot of company. This is a very popular cycling route and I’ll be passed by many cyclists for the duration of the ride.

Almost immediately after beginning the climb I enter Monte San Bartolo Regional Park, and will be within it for the entire ride until returning to town. The park extends for nearly twenty miles, covering the complete length of this ridge until it drops to the sea again.

If you read the post of Rachael’s hike that she left for todY not long after I did, you’ll note that she ended up climbing this same switchback. Without planning or being aware of it, we both chose the same route - though of course on the bike I made it well further north.

Looking back over Pesaro, from about the midpoint of the climb.

The view east across the sea. Rachael’s post includes a shot or two very much like this.

You can’t overstate what a splendid ride this is once on top, as the crest road (the aptly named Panoramica Adriatica) rolls along the ridge, presenting you with one thrilling viewpoint after another - toward the sea at times, but primarily to the west across the beautiful Marche interior. A narrow, twisting road that reminds me of Skyline Road in the West Hills above Portland except much better, it’s exciting, exhilarating and great fun. And today at least, there’s little motor vehicle traffic to share the road with - I see many more bikers than cars, coming up here I imagine from both ends of the ridge. What a fantastic resource to have at your doorstep!

One stunning view follows another as I roll along the Panoramica Adriatica.

The ride itself is the main attraction, but there’s more. About eight miles into it I come to the small, scenic village of Fiorenzuola di Focara with its castle ruins, eroded bell tower and jaw dropping view down the coast toward Pesaro. An essential stop, but one you have to push your bike through once you reach the village gate because biking is prohibited inside.

Impressive wisteria, Fiorenzuola di Focara.

The view south toward Pesaro from Fiorenzuola di Focara.

It’s after six when I leave the village. Mindful of the time, I consider turning back here but decide I’ve still got daylight enough left to bike three more miles to the planned end point at Casteldimezzo, another scenic highlight with its own stunning coastal views. I don’t stay there long though - just long enough to admire the views really - and then turn back toward town.

The view across the Adriatic from Casteldimezzo.

The ride back to town is as delightful as the ride out. If we lived in Pesaro I can imagine being up here nearly every week, enjoying experiencing these views in different seasons and conditions.

I was startled on the way back to see a lighthouse ahead, something that’s not visible biking the other direction. Built in 1952, its light has a nautical visability of 25 miles because of its high position 200 meters above the sea.

Cars are just beginning to drive with their headlights on as I drop through the switchbacks back to town, but visibility is still good. I’m back at the apartment around 7:30, with plenty of light still left in the day.

It’s a confusing scene when I wheel the bike into the apartment. Rachael’s already here - she’s been back perhaps a half hour - and frustrated. She hiked without glasses today. Her favorite pair - the flimsy, airy ones she loves so much - are unusable for now because one of the lenses fell out again. She can’t find her backup glasses either though, and wonders if I have a clue. I don’t - all I have is my own pair I say, reaching into the back of my shirt and then sheepishly pulling out two. That pair I pocketed on impulse on the way out the door wasn’t mine. I feel badly about it, but there’s nothing to do but apologize.

And then I reach back into my pocket to pull out my copy of the key to the outside gate. It’s not there. A puzzlement, because I had it five minutes earlier when I used it to let myself in. Puzzlement turns to frustration turns to despair as we look everywhere inside and out. Three different times we frisk me and my shirts to confirm it’s really not in my pocket after all. And three different times I go back outside again to double and triple check whether I had left it in the gate or dropped it in the grass wheeling our bikes inside to get them out of the rain that’s expected to roll in tonight.

Finally we give up for the night. Maybe it will still turn up, because it really is here somewhere. I sit down on the couch and pull out the iPad, and because it feels too warm I pull off my bike shirt.

Clink. The key, which somehow really was in my shirt somehow, drops to the floor.

Descending toward Pesaro at the end of the day. It’s a great time to be here, with such long days now.

Returning to town, recrossing the Foglia.

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Ride stats today: 23 miles, 2,100’; for the tour: 1,042 miles, 53,600’

Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 1,037 miles (1,669 km)

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