Antico Mangano

Was it the instinct what took little Alfonso to keep the ancient machine away from fire? The Marchi family really needed firewood for warmth in the worst days of war. Maybe it was not a matter of instinct, it was maybe pride what lead him to fight for the mangano, pride for his father’s job, the same pride that keeps the Stamperia Marchi up still today.

Wasn’t it love? Nothing else but love can explain what Alfonso’s daughter and son still feel for the fabrics printing studio where they grew up. Love? Maybe it wasn’t love. It was magic! It was definitely magic!

Nothing else but magic can make it possible. What else can make a big wooden wheel capable of moving tons of weight with the strength of just one man? Alfonso recalls how he, along with instinct, pride, love and magic, prevented the mangano, the calender, from becoming lost and forgotten, forever. And thus, the magnificent artifact, a Mesopotamian prodigy, an enormous wheel improved by Leonardo da Vinci in 1633, has survived to this day.

The quest for the antico mangano took us through all kind of surfaces. And so, the main part of the route goes along pure dirt and compact gravel paths.

The first part of the journey is easy and pleasing with a fair number of paved segments, but once we leave Vía Santarcangiolese, towards Franzolini, the first concrete two-digit walls appear before us.

These walls on the way to the beautiful and cobbled medieval village of San Leo, and one last climb to Monte Benedetto, were the perfect exam to test the agility of the new Terra geometry.

Alfonso’s successors, Gabriele and Lara, keep the studio running in the awesome Italian Romagna.

The stamperia exists around the big wheel, the stamperia where the Marchi family stamps fabrics with wooden molds, just the way it was done three millenniums ago.

Alfonso loves this land and bursts with pride as he tells us about a magical territory. After all, this is love. What else would make us want to get lost without being sure of what’s coming around the corner, just in the quest for the unknown.

After all, this is what magic does: the spell brought us to Santarcangelo, on the back of another prodigious artifact, on the back of a bike.

In this trip to the heart of Romagna the new Orbea Terra had a perfect reaction at all times. One single Terra can be many bikes.

There is, without a doubt, a bit of pride in all this, the pride of a centenary tradition. The same pride of tradition moves Orbea, just like the Marchi’s, to never stop exploring.

Alfonso Marchi is absolutely sure that tradition leads to wisdom, and wisdom means freedom, ability to invent, to create and to lead the past, the present and the future.

Get to know the bike from this Pachamama

Terra is our most capable gravel option, perfect for all types of terrain and adventures. Discover Terra and get ready to explore new horizons.