Route 14: A ride around Borgo San Lorenzo, Tuscany

Spectators flock here once a year for the MotoGP at Mugello - but motorcyclists should come all year round for the brilliant roads

Well, when you see a giant helmet, you have to take a selfie… don’t you?

“I know a great road round here” says Weeble. “It’s somewhere round here anyway. Great cafe at the top. It sells the best olive oil in Italy. Now where is it?” The thing is, there are so many great roads around Mugello - the race track on the edge of Borgo San Lorenzo - that it almost doesn’t matter which way we go.

If you’ve ever watched the Italian MotoGP on telly, you’ll know that the crazy undulations of the Tuscan hills have produced a fantastic circuit - rising and falling with kinds of corners and and one super-fast straight. Those hills have done the same favour for us, producing roads that rise and fall with a bountiful profusion of corners and the occasional - OK, rare - long, fast, straight. And if the the road surface isn’t quite as pristine as the GP track, in many places it’s pretty close…

I have so many great motorcycling roads recommended in this part of Italy that the challenge was putting together just four routes - not 14. We arrive from the north, riding stretches of the Futa and Giogo passes. After pausing by the circuit, ears straining to work out what’s thrashing round it, we’re swinging north into the hills again on the Passo del Muraglione.

It’s blissfully quiet - this would be a great chance to stretch the bike’s legs, but the road is steep and unbelievably twisty. Mugello’s like a NASCAR oval by comparison. On and on we climb, working up a thirst. When I roll to a stop, Weeble rides alongside and flips up his helmet. “There it is” he points. “That’s the cafe. I told you it was a great road…”

MAPS AND DOWNLOADS FOR A RIDE AROUND BORGO SAN LORENZO

Map of Motorcycling touring route around Borgo San Lorenzo, Italy

Route 1 (our route): start/finish: Borgo San Lorenzo. Distance: 165 miles. Riding time: 7 hours. Suggested stops: AM coffee: Palazzuolo sul Senio, lunch: Passo del Muraglione, PM coffee: Fornace
Route one map, Route one GPX file

Route 2: Distance: 165 miles. Riding time: 5.5 hours. Includes Passo del Calla
Route two map, Route two GPX file

Route 3: Distance: 210 miles. Riding time: 7 hours. Includes Passo del Giogo
Route three map, Route three GPX file

Route 4: Distance: 190 miles. Riding time: 6 hours. Includes the Passo della Futa
Route four map, Route four GPX file

Please note: This page contains the route files for The RiDE Guide to motorcycle touring in Italy which came free with RiDE magazine in July 2015. These website page are not regularly updated, so please check all critical information before you travel. All route files are in .gpx format. Garmin and BMW users can download the main file, which contains all the routes and our recommended hotels as separate waypoints. TomTom users can download the individual routes and use the Tyre software to convert them. For many routes we also have Google Map links. However, as Google Maps will not plot routes over seasonally closed high Alpine passes (such as Stelvio) when they’re shut, these may not work for every route all year round.