The first leg of the Southern Way begins from the extraordinary setting of St Peter’s Basilica in the heart of Rome, from where it goes North towards Assisi. This leg will take you through Rome to the outskirts and presents no particular difficulties. In 35 kilometres, and a gradual climb of 700 metres, you will reach Monterotondo, just outside of the Eternal City. You leave the Basilica along Via della Conciliazione and travel over the cycle path along the Tiber River that starts at Ponte Sant’Angelo, thus getting through much of the city without having to battle its traffic.
You pass Ponte Milvio and continue on the cycle path past the Auditorium and then over Via Nomentana in the area of Montesacro, where you will have to get onto ordinary streets and deal with traffic to leave town. Do be careful. You will exit Rome on Via Bufalotta and from here proceed over Via di Tor San Giovanni into the Nature Reserve of Marcigliana, where they found the site of the Crustumerium, among the oldest cities of Lazio’s early history, on the plains above the Tiber River. It was built to keep an eye over the Via Salaria in the early Iron Age (X-IX century BC).
The ride will take you through kilometres of Roman countryside, dotted with gently sloping hills covered in fields and pasture land, before you begin the ascent to Monterotondo, at the centre of which you will find the ancient Rocca Orsini Barberini fortress.