Castiglione – Sassi – Superga – Rivodora – Tanohill – Cordova – Pavarolo

Forty-two kilometres and 1,341 metres of climbing across the Turin hill and back, on a bright October day with haze still lying over the plain. The hill has more life on it than it seems from the city: a fox crossed the path ahead of me, and the stork was there again, in the same spot where it greets me every time I ride past. On the road up to Superga there was a sadder sight, a roe deer killed by a car. Roe deer live all over these woods, and the roads that cut through them are where they are most at risk.

The first part drops to Sassi, on the city side of the hill and the lowest point of the day at about 200 metres, where the rack tramway still climbs to Superga as it has since the 1930s. The bike takes the long way up instead, through the woods, to the basilica at almost 670 metres. Juvarra’s church has stood on the top of the hill since 1731, with the tombs of the House of Savoy inside, and it is also the hill where the plane of the Grande Torino team came down in 1949. From the edge of the trees the city opens up below: the roofs, the Mole Antonelliana, and the Alps along the whole horizon.

Then over the top and down the other side towards Rivodora. Most of the riding is on narrow paths under oak and chestnut, deep in fallen leaves, with roots and loose stones underneath; a few stretches go through brambles that had nearly closed the path, and a couple of quiet lanes link them.

The way back runs past orchards towards Cordova and Pavarolo, the village where the painter Felice Casorati spent his summers, with the basilica looking back from its hill across the valley.