Riding from the Sibillini Mountains to the Adriatic along the Strade di Marca

On the Conero heights, a historic winery such as Moroder, focuses on its wines made from the grapes growing on the Adriatic not only with careful refinement of its wines but also with the hospitality of slow pedal tourism, as does the Tenuta di Tavignano in Cingoli, inland, which is dedicated to the revival of Verdicchio with tastings for a stop along the way. Near Cingoli, it is also possible to visit one of the oldest family-run mills in Italy: the Bravi Mill has continued, for at least five hundred years (but perhaps even longer), to grind wheat and local cereals strictly with water-activated stone millstones, with a capacity of 25-30 quintals per day. In Montefano, you can visit the Ciclo Museo where Sandro Braconi has collected dozens of bicycles from the days when the economy travelled on two wheels: from the barber to the knife-grinder, from the ice-cream vendor to the priest with his confessional, from the fireman to the butcher to the schoolteacher, there are many models recovered or, perhaps, invented from scratch that tell a unique story of the Italy of times gone by. In Montegranaro, the centre of the shoe district, another museum tells the story of how agricultural culture was transformed into craftsmanship that evolved from cloth slippers into luxury footwear known the world over. Souvenirs of the workshops remain in the rooms of the museum where the development of an activity is reconstructed, an actor of which can still be found among the steep alleys of the centre. In what is still to all intents and purposes an artisan's workshop, Doriano Marcucci keeps alive the tradition of craftsmanship by transforming into art the culture and empathy of a master such as Basilio De Stella, whose apprentice he was for only a couple of years, enough to keep alive the art that today produces exclusive models for selected customers and for wealthy Arabs from the Gulf. Doriano even managed to make a model for Pope Benedict XVI and deliver it in person when he was 'Pope Emeritus'. And now he has ready a pair of eccentric shoes with the Moroccan flag for King Mohammed VI, he is just waiting for the opportunity to give them to him personally: he does not trust intermediaries, even trusted ones. A short distance away, Magliano di Tenna has decided to challenge the crisis in the footwear sector by focusing on the integration of mobility and sustainability, betting on cycle tourism and recovering the tradition of the Mediterranean diet, which has one of its research bases here.

The 'Strade di Marca' initiative was born from the intuition of Mauro Fumagalli and sisters Loredana and Sonia Miconi who, between their passion for cycling and love for the territory, have involved the municipalities of the Marche region with an initiative that is a model for the promotion on two wheels of the artistic, historical, cultural and gastronomic riches that Italy is full of, with a project that can be replicated in any territory, offering new opportunities for local economies with limited investment and light infrastructure. It is also with cycling that the Marche region aims to relaunch its riches in the face of competition from more accredited regions in terms of tourism such as Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria: 'Cycle tourism offers a great opportunity to network people and territories: it is not just a question of joining routes, but also of focusing on opening up to tourism and hospitality operators, with what we have conceived as a true public-private partnership for the benefit of all,' Fumagalli summarises.

The total 800 kilometres of cycling routes, with a total elevation gain of more than 13,000 metres, are accessible through the 'Strade di Marca' web app, which allows the organisation of the journey in total autonomy, but organisation is also available through the NoiMarcheBikeLife structure. The route covers all five provinces of the Marche region, extending from the heights of the Sibillini mountains to the hills of the hinterland to the coast, where it exploits the structure - to tell the truth, not completely completed - of the Adriatic Cycle Route connecting the maritime centres. Fano, known as the 'city of fortune', is the natural outlet of the Metauro valley and is the junction of the ancient Via Flaminia that connects directly with Rome. In the centre remains the structure of the old port of the Eternal City's outlet to the Adriatic and the East. Next door, Leo Vitali's bar offers the 'Moretta', a typical drink that over the years has become traditional for fishermen before they set out to sea: a mixture of coffee, rum, cognac, aniseed, sugar and lemon peel still prepared according to the historical recipe, strictly with liqueurs. Again by bicycle, we descend towards Senigallia, with its iconic 'Rotonda sul mare', then Ancona, the Conero, Civitanova, down to San Benedetto del Tronto, on the border with Abruzzo, where the fleet of fishing boats that used to reach as far as the Atlantic has dwindled and today offers fishing tourism to take enthusiasts out to the high seas to fish with a rod. Here too, on the local fishing boats affiliated with the route, it is possible to have the stamp to complete the Passport of the Cycle Tourist, the document that holds the tourist experience together, integrating cultural and artistic activities, history, food and wine and hospitality into a single game. Everything within reach of two wheels.