96km Cassino to Alfredena
Scapoli
Ride Overview
An Apennine crossing with bells on. You’ve arrived from the coast, you’ve laid siege to the walls of the Apennine fortress during the night, and now with your amassed strength, it is time to storm the walls. And what walls! They loom, as you ride the valley farm tracks, goading you, challenging you, and it is hard to see a route through them. But there is - and it is a wonderfully scenic ride. It is hard in Western Europe to replicate the intense feeling of solitude which exists in these vast unpeopled mountains - cars are rare, villages all but deserted, re-supplies almost non-existent. The ride, whislt glorious is challenging in that there are many hills and passes to ride over. There’s meloncholy too, for you’ll ride past many war cemeteries and wayside memorials testifying to the horrors of war. Once over the Valico S. Fransisco - you have a serendipitous downhill run to the bustling mountain village of Alfredena. It’s a ride you’ll not forget for a long while.
Ride practicalities
The ride of course, can be ridden at any time between May and late October. However, winter is a very special time to ride, especially when in these climate changing times, when the roads are clear of snow (and cars), there is a special magic in this crossing of the Apennines.
START/FINISH: Cassino DISTANCE: 96km. TOTAL ASCENT: 2356m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: All road, other than a few farm tracks at the start of the day. Unless there’s been heavy rain, they are very rideable. FOOD: At a premium once you’re in the mountains. The only place I found open was La Tania, Cerasuolo. A good bowl of pasta is to be had. They say they that they are open everyday. Alfredena: La ruota, ACCOMODATION: Alfredena; BandB Tina MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: None LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: The Winter Line Stage 1, Stage 2
Ride Notes
Leaving the battlefield of Cassino, the route heads, which is in the complete opposite direction to the one you need. However there are, as you can see on your left hand side as you ride along the Rapido valley, the large matter of a grey wall of mountain blocking the way. So follow the river, just as the Allied troops had to do. The battle here on 20-22 January 1944 was bitterly contested. Today, if you ride on a serene winter’s day all is silent.
Roads become narrower and by Fontana Rossa, you’re riding on farm tracks whose surface betters many roads. Quiet fields, pastures, small woods and abandoned houses whose roofs and walls are collapsing, add to the picturesque. Despite the light and the blazing sun, there’s a melancholy in the air. There sense of abandonment allied with the knowledge that what you’re riding over was not so long ago, a bloody battlefield.
You ride under Monte Lungo, where a spirited division of the re-modelled Italian army, had their first engagement since their surrender in September 1943. The Italian Brigade, the First Motorised Group were attached to the US 5th Army and despite being poorly armed were charged with taking Monte Lungo, where the Werhmact’ s 15th Panzer Grenadier Division were deeply entrenched. In the morning mist of the 11 December, the division along with US II Corps attacked, only for the mist to clear. The Italians suffered heavy casualties. Another and ultimately successful attack took place on the mountain on 16 December 1943. During the fierce battle on the mountain San Pietro Infine, the town at its base, was destroyed. After the war, the returning residents decided to rebuild the town three kilometres down the road. You can see the ruins as you ride past in the valley below the town.
At this crucial battlefield, there are a couple of short diversions; the first being a monument in a field with the twenty names of partisans shot near to the stone. Look carefully at the list, and you see that whole families were wiped out. Over 150,000 Italian citizens died in the conflict and a further 67,000 Italian soldiers died between the Armistice and the end of the war. 974 Italians are buried in the nearby Italian War Cemetery of Montelungo. There’s a museum opposite the cemetery.
Back on the route, there’s a straight-forward climb to avoid a road tunnel, followed by more farm tracks to Venafro, where on the outside of town, there’s a French/Algerian/Tunisian/Moroccan cemetery, holding 3,414 soldiers. Venafro suffered another of war’s indiscriminate ‘accidents’ when it was heavily bombed in dense fog by Americans on their way to Cassino. Not only was the town flattened resulting in many civilian deaths, but the HQ of the British 8th Army along with the Moroccan military hospital were also destroyed.
Riding along the via Maiella - named after the mountain fortress with which you’ll soon be well acquainted, the rode begins to rise. And rise. And rise. The gradients are not severe. Woods close in. An arboreal silence engulfs you. Grey trunks rise skywards from the brown leaf littered floor. Stop and you hear nothing other than the blood pumping around your ears. The air is cooler. From time to time you pass ruined villages.
After 56km you’re over half way and if fortune sits with you, La Tania will be open in Cerasuolo. If you’re riding the route in winter, it is the first restaurant/cafe that you’ll pass since leaving Venafro. In summer there are more options. Should you ride on, know that there is nothing open in winter at least, between here and the end of the day at Alfredena.
From Cerasuolo to Scarpoli, the tortured road writhes through the woods and out into the open. It seems as if the whole of Southern Italy opens out below you. Into the haze go mountain after mountain. Small settlements sit precariously on top of improbable hills.
War laid waste this land, but not always in the way imagined. Castelnuovo al Volturno, is the oldest and most populous hamlet. Once the front had moved north, US troops ordered all inhabitants to leave. They needed a relatively intact village in order to make a propoganda docufilm. The village was shelled by several artillery barrages, there was shooting in the streets and the victorious army stood triumphant amongst the ruins of the village. Then the Americans left and the villagers returned to the little that was left.
The road continues to contour around hills. There are misty winter views across endless folds of mountains and smoke from chimneys and small field fires spirals into the blue sky. You ride past a lake with many closed campsites and restaurants, plunge into a valley and then, there is the long easy gradient up to the Vallico di San Francesco. Shadows play as the light folds, cold descends from the peaks. Pockets of snow line the road, leaves curl with frost. No bird sings. You ride through an impassive silence.
As darkness spreads its mantle over the impassive trees, you speed down the mountain towards the warm lights of Alfredena, where La Ruota, the only restaurant open in winter is preparing local traditional dishes for your supper.
Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.
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