Brasimone

You leave your car just after the dam, near a small church and kiosk. After a nice overview of the lake, you set off, following the roaring course of the Brasimone stream that flows through a forest covered with ancient beech trees. Very pleasant climb on a dirt surface-the others will not all be like this. You reach Passo San Giuseppe between farmhouses and grasslands, a short rejoining stretch still on forestry and then it is time to take DH23. The start is mild but then it heats up with fast guided passages and mini-toboga that make it all electrifying until the end. S2 technical level interspersed with some S3.

Very gloomy but all in all rideable ascent: after crossing a charming farmstead, the shady and thundering course of the Setta Torrent is flanked. At the junction with the trail, continue uphill this time on scenic forestry. Here and there stone milestones at least two hundred years old pop up, still demarcating the border with Tuscan territory. Actually you quickly re-enter Emilia and then zig zag back into Tuscany near the Croce di Geppe. The advice is to climb to the top of the peak with your bikes: not only for scenic reasons or ambitions of conquest but also for the enjoyable gravity descent you gain. However, the descent proper (CAI 421) is a continuation of this one: initially it looms halfway up a sandstone ridge (flat exposed section, not dangerous). But the most aggressive trajectories are hidden inside the woods: tight hairpin bends, and rock gardens dominate for a good part of the trail, almost all the way into the ruined village of Chiapporato.Much to our surprise we find a group of guys waiting for us who invite us to go up to the old Rectory that has been completely renovated and transformed into a cozy hut now open for the opening of the chestnut harvest drying room.

After a good coffee by voluntary offering, we set off again for a very hard climb, not entirely cyclable unless you have an ebike because of the pebbles and inclement slopes. The exertions will soon be repaid: after a defaticating false-flat section, the final descent awaits us, short but definitely intense: the Barbamozza. Excavated, rocky and fast it requires excellent riding skills and a bit of improvisation: an S2 start with S3 in the middle part. Coming out onto the road, all that remains is to descend a few more meters and go enjoy the lakeside promenade for the return trip.