The best cycling routes around Busache/Busachi

Good asphalt, great views, challenging climb.

The Tirso is the longest river in Sardinia. It rises as Riu de su Campo north of Bitti, in the province of Nuoro on the east side of the island, flows through the Lago Omodeo reservoir and flows into Oristano on the west side of the island. In the middle reaches it is spanned by the Ponte Ezzu, an old Roman bridge, near Illorai. It is 150 km long and is only navigable in the last few kilometers. The fertile plain north of Oristano through which it flows is called the Tirso plain.

Small marina, a small paved path at pin level leads down to the lake shores. The road that runs alongside it is not the best, but it is also practicable by road bike.

Bridge over the Tirso River, blocked by the Eleonora D'Arborea Dam to form the artificial basin of Lake Omodeo.

Lake Omodeo is an artificial basin formed with the damming of the Tirso River in 1924 with the Santa Chiara Dam. Today replaced by the new Eleonora D'Arborea dam, the old barrier has been partially submerged.

The thermal baths are managed by the Cooperative Forum Traiani. Current opening times can be found here: https://www.forumtraiani.it/what-to-see/?lang=en

It was once the Forum Traiani, the most important Roman city in the island's hinterland, founded in the late Republic and becoming a marketplace between the inland communities and the Romanized population of the Gulf of Oristano under Emperor Trajan. Today Fordongianus is a small town of less than a thousand inhabitants in the Barigadu area, a renowned wellness center thanks to a thermal facility that uses saline and thermoactive water springs that flow at 56 degrees all year round and have beneficial effects on the body. A feature known to the Romans: the city is situated on the left bank of the fertile and lush valley of the Tirso, home to the warm and healing Aquae Ypsitanae, Roman baths from the 1st century AD, now an archaeological site. Two facilities can be visited, one retains a rectangular porticoed swimming pool, originally with a barrel vault, the other includes the changing room. The floor was in mosaic (you will see traces of it) and the ceiling in blue glass paste. The supply was ensured by a network of canals and a system of wells and cisterns. The importance of the thermal baths is confirmed by two statues of the god Bes, deity of health cults, and by a sacred space dedicated to the nymphs. Source: https://www.sardegnaturismo.it/en/discover/fordongianus

The Tirso is one of the largest rivers in Sardinia. Even in summer it still carries water. Here it flows idyllically under the bridge made of reddish trachyte blocks. A short path in the river valley takes visitors to the center of Fordongianus.