CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
475 km from Como to Como, about 6 h 34 of riding. It goes by way of Il Sabbione o settentrionale, Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari, Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità and back through Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Lake Como is shaped like an upside-down Y, with the city of Como at the end of one leg, and it is the deepest lake in Italy, plunging to over four hundred metres. The Alps rise straight from the water, with villas and gardens on the shores, and ferries zigzagging between the villages. Como itself is a small and elegant city, with a Duomo that took centuries to build and mixes Gothic and Renaissance styles, a walled old town and a lakefront with a funicular climbing to the hill village of Brunate. It was the birthplace of Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the battery, and the unit of electrical potential carries his name.
Read the complete Como write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Como is where the day begins. Next is Il Sabbione o settentrionale.
Lake Monate is small, round and remarkably clean, set in the gentle hills of the Varese province between Lake Maggiore and Lake Varese. It has no river flowing into it, being fed by springs, and its water is among the clearest of any lake in Lombardy, which makes it a favourite with swimmers on hot summer days. On its northern shore, near Cadrezzate, the site known as Il Sabbione preserves the remains of a prehistoric village built on piles at the water's edge, part of the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. The Varese area is rich in such sites, and the finds from them, including pottery, tools and the remains of wooden canoes, are displayed in local museums.
Read the complete Il Sabbione o settentrionale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Il Sabbione o settentrionale comes up 54 km in. Next is Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari.
Most people who come to Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan are here for one painting, and they are right to be. On the wall of the old refectory of the Dominican convent, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Last Supper in the 1490s for Duke Ludovico Sforza, and despite his experimental technique, which began to fail almost at once, despite centuries of damage and despite a bomb that destroyed much of the building in 1943, the painting survives. The wall was protected with sandbags, and the long restoration completed in 1999 revealed colours and faces that had been hidden for centuries.
Read the complete Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
108 km in you reach Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari. Next is Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari, about halfway. Next is Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità, 54 km on.
High above the western shore of Lake Maggiore, in a forest of chestnut and beech above the village of Ghiffa, a small sanctuary dedicated to the Holy Trinity looks out over the water to the hills of Lombardy. The Sacro Monte of Ghiffa began in the seventeenth century as a series of chapels along a path, each meant to illustrate a scene from sacred history for pilgrims, but it was never completed as planned. It is the smallest of the nine Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy listed by UNESCO in 2003, and its charm lies in its intimacy and its setting: a few chapels, a porticoed walkway and a church in the woods, with the lake shining below.
Read the complete Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità sits at 215 km, about halfway. Next is back through Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari comes up 269 km in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
323 km in you reach back through Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari. Next is back through Il Sabbione o settentrionale.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Il Sabbione o settentrionale write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Il Sabbione o settentrionale, late in the day. Next is Como.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Como write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 475 km.
Como → Il Sabbione o settentrionale is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Il Sabbione o settentrionale → Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari → Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sacro Monte della SS.Trinità → back through Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari → back through Il Sabbione o settentrionale is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Il Sabbione o settentrionale → Como is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.