Corte Carpani is the kind of place that the name tells you most about. A corte in this part of Lombardy is a farm courtyard, with a farmhouse, barns and outbuildings arranged around a square, and the old estates in the Mantuan hills often kept the names of the families who owned them for a few generations. It sits among the low moraine hills south of Lake Garda, near the villages of Solferino and Cavriana, in a country of vines, maize, cypress rows and brick farm towers.
The hills themselves are the product of the last Ice Age. A tongue of ice pushed down from the Alps and left curved ridges of gravel, so that the land is a sequence of small, rounded crests with flat plain between them, and the lanes follow the ridge-tops with sudden, wide views. The landscape is also a battlefield. On 24 June 1859, the French and Piedmontese armies met the Austrians here at Solferino, in a day of fighting that left tens of thousands of dead and wounded. A Swiss businessman called Henri Dunant came upon the field by chance, was shocked by the lack of care for the injured, and wrote a book that led to the founding of the Red Cross. There is a museum in Solferino, and the tower on the hill, the Spia d'Italia, gives long views across the battlefield.
The story has a special weight when you remember that the Red Cross began as a Swiss idea, and the quiet of the hills now is a striking contrast. The roads are narrow and the surface is mixed, with farm traffic, cyclists and a few blind corners. Morning mist hangs on the fields in autumn, and in June the poppies are spectacular. Spring and early autumn are best, and the harvest in September brings a rich smell to the vineyards.
Cavriana and Solferino have small shops and cafes, and larger fuel stations are found at Castiglione delle Stiviere and on the main roads towards Mantua and Brescia, so fill the tank beforehand. The local wines, Garda Colli Mantovani, are light and good with a plate of tortelli di zucca, the sweet pumpkin pasta that Mantua loves.
Villa Almerico Capra, the next stop on the ride list, is across the plain to the north-east, and you can ride between the two in half a day.