Cesenatico by bike

Here a bike isn’t a sport, it’s how you get around. Everything is flat, distances are short, and in summer you lose more time parking a car than driving it. These are the rides we do ourselves, and the ones we point guests towards when they turn up with bikes on the roof rack — all of them with somewhere to stop halfway.

The short ride: seafront and Parco di Levante

The first one barely counts as a ride: get on the seafront and pedal. On the Levante side there’s a green strip between the beach and the road — the Giardini al Mare — with the cycle path running alongside, play areas for children and shade where you need it.

It takes you to the Parco di Levante, the green lung with its small lake: ten minutes from the centre, and the right place for a break when the sun is at its worst. With children it’s the perfect ride, because you barely meet a car.

South: the mouth of the Rubicone

Our favourite, because it goes past our door. You head south along the coast — Valverde, Villamarina, Gatteo Mare — as far as the mouth of the Rubicone, the river Caesar crossed, which ends here in the sea without making a fuss. It’s only a few kilometres, almost all of it on cycle paths or quiet roads, and you come back through the Parco di Levante.

It’s an early-morning or late-afternoon ride. And if you do it at midday, the point where you’ll get hungry is more or less where we are: Viale Carducci, Villamarina.

North: the pine woods of Cervia

If you’ve got the legs and a bit of time, the beautiful ride goes north: follow the coast to Milano Marittima and Cervia, on the Adriatic Cycle Route, with the pine woods of Pinarella and Tagliata on the way back. That’s around twenty-five kilometres there and back, all flat, with pine shade for half of it.

Inland: fifteen kilometres to Cesena

The third ride catches everyone by surprise: from Cesenatico you can reach Cesena by following the canal, some fifteen kilometres and virtually flat, gentle enough for children. You leave the sea behind, cross the Romagna countryside and arrive in a real city, with the Malatestiana Library and the fortress. Then you ride home with the wind behind you, which in the evening usually blows off the sea.

Pantani’s home town

Cycling here isn’t a tourist activity, it’s a serious matter. Marco Pantani was from Cesenatico, and the town hasn’t forgotten: there’s a monument on the seafront with his bronze statue on the bike, and near the station there’s Spazio Pantani, the museum his family runs themselves.

Then there’s the Nove Colli, which every May brings thousands of riders here from half the world: 2026 is the 55th edition, run on Sunday 24 May with start and finish on the seafront, over three routes (205, 130 and 60 kilometres) through the hills inland. If you happen to be here that weekend, know it in advance: the town is full and roads close. Current dates and information on the official site.

Where to stop (that part we do know)

The cycle tourist’s problem is always the same: the riding is excellent, and then you eat badly, in a hurry, standing up.

We’re along the coast to the south, at Viale Carducci 319 in Villamarina: you pass our door coming back from the Rubicone or heading towards Gatteo. Park the bike, sit down, eat fish bought that morning, and set off again when the air has cooled. If you’re a group, a phone call helps us. Seafood cooking since 1987.

Quick tips

• Easy ride: Levante seafront and Parco di Levante, cycle path almost entirely separated — ideal with children.
• South: Villamarina, Gatteo Mare, the mouth of the Rubicone; back through the Parco di Levante.
• North: Milano Marittima and Cervia along the Adriatic Cycle Route, ~25 km there and back, pine woods on the way home.
• Inland: Cesenatico to Cesena along the canal, ~15 km, flat.
• Cycling: Marco Pantani’s monument on the seafront, Spazio Pantani near the station, the Nove Colli granfondo in May.
• The stop: La Romantica, Viale Carducci 319, Villamarina — on the southern route. Book: +39 378 4227433.