GTL 11 Lazio From Rieti to Stimigliano

THE UPPER SABINA

The eleventh stage of the GTL changes the landscape once again: we move away from the Apennines for the lower Sabine Mountains, heading west. But the lower altitudes should not deceive, since the slopes of these hills often prove to be more challenging and hard than the mountains proper, with their sudden and violent ups and downs. From Rieti we leave for the beautiful village of Contigliano, on little-frequented and lonely roads among olive trees and vineyards. We are a few steps from Greccio, a medieval town famous for its nativity scenes, certainly worthy of a detour. Hairpin bends, climbs and descents follow one another, giving villages resting on the "hillocks", the heights chosen for settlements since ancient times: Cottanello, Casperia, Cantalupo in Sabina. Only the end of the stage and the arrival in the Tiber valley offers a bit of descent and respite, up to the railway station of Stimigliano, the end of the stage – and a public velodrome, that of Forano.