It sometimes happens, for those of us in our profession, that we start with an idea and end up having tackled something completely different. When approaching Hic Sunt Leones, one of the first long randonnées of the season, taking place on May 9th and 10th in Romagna, we started with an assumption: how the 600-kilometer ride began as a tribute to an undertaking dating back two centuries, when the writer Alfredo Oriani made a long journey , completely original for the time, with a Bremiambourg through four regions. But its revival went much further.
A ride through Italian utopias
In describing the upcoming adventure, organizer Graziano Foschi 's words are full of passion, but above all, of that desire for discovery that underpins every bike trip. This is evident in his explanation of the event's history: " We took inspiration from Oriani's 1897 book, "The Bicycle," which describes a month-long journey starting in Romagna, from Casola Valsenio, and heading towards Tuscany.
"It's a wonderful tour we've done for three or four years, and it's been very well received. But when we looked at the calendar last year, we found other similar events in Tuscany, and we wanted to do something different. We wanted to create an event that had a logic, because we don't like creating a trail just for the sake of it. And we found it by exploring the micronations within Italy, connecting the dots of this idea ."
The proposal immediately strikes a chord with curiosity, and Foschi's words begin to describe a universe made up of episodes, stories, and corners of the territory unknown to most: "We first pass through the community of Mutonia in Sant'Arcangelo : a group of artists who create giant works of art with industrial waste, cars, and so on, and have an independent village on the banks of the river. Then we travel from Rimini to the area of Isola delle Rose, this platform that for 55 days after the war was declared a nation and then demolished by the Italian state, an event that was brought back to the fore a few years ago through a famous 2020 film.
In the republic dedicated to art
«Then we do a part where we go into the Marche, through the Furlo gorges to pass through the Free Republic of Alcatraz, which is a place designed by Jacopo Fo, Nobel Prize winner Dario's son. We'll have refreshments there. The event moves to Giano dell'Umbria, where Vincenzo Sparagna, one of the founders of Frigidaire magazine, basically took the top of a hill and declared it Republic of Frigolandia, where there is an archive of illustrations, magazines, ideas."
It's already incredible to think of this journey through ideas, the brilliant creations linked to multiple forms of human expression, but the ride narrated by Foschi goes further: " We pass through a former nation called Cospaia, and this is an absurd story. In 1441, the Medici and the Papal States had to redraw their borders. The Tuscan family's envoys, sent to mark the border, found themselves facing a stream called the Rio. The Papal States sent their emissaries to do the same and found themselves facing a stream called the Rio.
A small state that existed for nearly 350 years
«But coincidence would have it that they were not the same stream, even if called by the same name, there was a 600-meter "interspace" and on that territory there was the town of Cospaia which declared itself an independent Republic for almost 350 years and maintained itself economically because it traded in tobacco which was banned by the Papal State, but they, being independent, sold it without any problems. This too is an interesting story.
"Then we go to Valdasse, which is a utopian dream of engineer Giorgetti , who bought a hilltop and built the skeleton of a hotel like the one in The Shining, a shopping mall, a church, and everything—in short, a micro-city with the intention of giving apartments to all the most famous Italian singers of the time. They started giving some away, but then it didn't catch on.
"So there's this tiny town at 1.100 meters above sea level, with the Road ending there, in this town where you can still see this apartment building, the mini shopping center, the skeleton of the hotel . And to welcome travelers there's a concrete base with a giant anchor with the words 'To the Fallen of the Sea' written on it. At 1.100 meters above sea level..."
The passage to San Marino is not missing
Among so many unique stories, the true expatriation of the route cannot be missed: " We obviously pass through one of the smallest states in the world, San Marino, and then complete the tour by returning to our country, to San Zaccaria di Ravenna, where the entire final celebration takes place, the pasta party, and the typical Romagna welcome."
There's a common thread that connects every single meter of the randonnée , making it different from all the others: "It's not just a ride for the sake of it. There's always the participant who sets off with his head down and just wants to complete the 600 kilometers with 5.400 meters of elevation gain. But there are those who want to delve deeper into the ride in the time it takes for a randonnée. So they can stop inside Mutonia to take photos, and they'll be greeted by Alcatraz with all the works of art by Fo and other artists. You can see the museum of art never seen before in Frigolandia and everything else."
A small village dedicated to hiking
But underlying it all remains that sense of discovery that permeated Oriani's literary work: "For us, it's history, that text is a testing ground from which we began to seek out the unique, that desire to return home after an event with something that stays with you. Which could also be the memory of the wonderful refreshment point at kilometer 340, where there's also a dormitory, the opportunity to take a shower, and rest for a few hours in a real bed ."
"It's on the banks of the Tiber, in a small village of 30, 40 people at most, called La Bruna, in the province of Perugia. Everyone pitched in, making our event a local celebration, where everyone has a role to play. And many are amazed by the welcome they receive."
For information and to register: graziano.foschi@studio.unibo.it
