Day 23: Comacchio to Cesena

Leaving Comacchio viewing the Trepponti bridge, a rare example of a five way bridge, with a three way canal split underneath.

Five large staircases connect the bridge. It was constructed in the mid 1600’s during a period of renovation to improve defences.

We headed back to the Adriatic coast and the Po delta.

The beaches were quiet with not many takers along the lido’s Comacchio claim as theirs.

Life was quieter and calm along the delta,.

We had been riding along busy roads hopping off onto a dirt trail around the delta to better view the birds and local activity.

The large city of Ravenna loomed, a city of around 160,000 residents, nestled known for its UNESCO Byzantine mosaics from around 600 BC.

We rode through an extensive industrial estate before arriving into the historical heart.

An early ruler Theodoric was buried here in the mid 500’s.

Many interesting and historical old buildings.

Heading back towards the Adriatic was this art installation. We had some quieter roads for a time.

We hit yet another market. This one looked quite interesting with local craft work, but we walked and scooted our way through about 750 metres of market, then rode along the waterfront.

Now you cannot see much beach despite being waterfront. The amount of commercial activity and structures is enormous. In most areas, you goto a particular bar, club, restaurant and they have beach access.

However there were moments of seeing the long, flat beach.

We had an about 14 km of non sealed surface riding today including this park. In many spots we were dodging tree roots.

Nice village boats.

Cycling roundabout as we arrived into Cesenatica.

Cesenstica, the birthplace of Marco Pantani, the celebrated Italian cyclist I mentioned on day two of our our trip as we climbed Passo Pantani and signed a memorial book.

In his home town he is a celebrated hero. He is also buried here with many flocking to his mausoleum.

Here in this park is a statue remembering him. Whilst there, many cyclists ventured in. Some just sat quietly, others more active in checking out the monument.

Adjacent was a flying banner indicating that the Tour de France is starting in Florence, which is not that far away.

Leaving the town was problematic. Our route movements are below. We rode down Viale Dante Alighieri to go around the small roundabout, to head up to the higher flyover bridge. Roadworks prevented us. Totally blocked. So we headed to the south and tried. Nope.

There were no other nearby options due to the fact that we needed to get onto that bridge as it crossed an auto strada a few hundred metres on.

We decided on this option. Trespass through an overgrown paddock! We pushed our bikes through this and onto the climbing lane for the bridge. Problem solved!