Why this ride
From Pisa it runs 340 km to Pisa; allow about 5 h 39 of riding. It goes by way of Palais de Seravezza, Montecatini Terme, Villa de Cerreto Guidi and Villa La Magia. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Pisa day out · Villa La Magia
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 340 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 39
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Pisa
Pisa has one picture in the world's head, and it is of a tilted tower, but the town behind the picture rewards a rider who stays for lunch. It sits on the flat Arno plain a few kilometres from the sea, with about seventy-seven thousand people, many of them students at the university and the Scuola Normale. The mountain ridge of the Monte Pisano rises to the east, low and wooded, and gives the city an odd comfort, like a hand on the shoulder.
Read the complete Pisa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pisa is where the day begins. Next is Palais de Seravezza.
2. Palais de Seravezza
Seravezza is where the Apuan Alps meet the Versilia coast in northern Tuscany. Behind the beaches of Forte dei Marmi, the mountains rise abruptly, white with marble scars, and Seravezza sits at the mouth of a valley where two rivers join. The Palazzo Mediceo, built in the 1560s for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was a summer residence and a base for overseeing the region's marble quarries and silver mines. It is one of the Medici villas and gardens inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2013, and today it hosts museums and exhibitions.
Read the complete Palais de Seravezza write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palais de Seravezza comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Montecatini Terme.
3. Montecatini Terme
The water at Montecatini has been drunk for health since the Middle Ages, but it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the town became one of the great spa resorts of Europe, with grand thermal establishments built in neoclassical, Liberty and Art Deco styles, set in parks of plane trees and pines. The Tettuccio, with its marble colonnades and frescoes, is the most famous, a temple of water where visitors drink from taps along a counter. In 2021 Montecatini became part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Vichy and others.
Read the complete Montecatini Terme write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach Montecatini Terme. Next is Villa de Cerreto Guidi.
4. Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Cosimo I de' Medici liked to hunt, and in the 1560s he had a villa built on a hilltop at Cerreto Guidi, on the edge of the marshes and woods west of Florence, where the game was plentiful. From the outside it is austere, a solid block of stone facing a square, but the approach is spectacular: a pair of great brick ramps, known as the Medici bridges, zigzag up to the entrance. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany, and it holds a dark legend. Cosimo's daughter Isabella died here in 1576, and the story goes that she was murdered by her husband, Paolo Giordano Orsini, for her alleged infidelity. Whether it is true or not, it is told to every visitor.
Read the complete Villa de Cerreto Guidi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa de Cerreto Guidi, about halfway. Next is Villa La Magia.
5. Villa La Magia
The Medici loved the countryside, especially when it came with hunting grounds, and Villa La Magia at Quarrata was one of their country retreats at the foot of the Montalbano hills, a few kilometres south of Pistoia. Francesco I de' Medici bought it in the sixteenth century to use as a hunting lodge, and it belongs to the World Heritage inscription for the Medici villas and gardens of Tuscany. The villa is a solid rectangular building around a courtyard, more farmhouse than palace, with a park that has become home to contemporary art installations, a rather unexpected touch for a Renaissance hunting lodge.
Read the complete Villa La Magia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa La Magia sits at 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi.
6. back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Cerreto Guidi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi comes up about 198 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Montecatini Terme.
7. back through Montecatini Terme
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Montecatini Terme write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 221 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Montecatini Terme. Next is back through Palais de Seravezza.
8. back through Palais de Seravezza
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palais de Seravezza write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Palais de Seravezza, late in the day. Next is Pisa.
9. Pisa
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pisa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 340 km.
Leg by leg
Pisa to Palais de Seravezza
Pisa → Palais de Seravezza is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palais de Seravezza to Montecatini Terme
Palais de Seravezza → Montecatini Terme is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Montecatini Terme to Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Montecatini Terme → Villa de Cerreto Guidi is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Cerreto Guidi to Villa La Magia
Villa de Cerreto Guidi → Villa La Magia is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa La Magia to back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Villa La Magia → back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi to back through Montecatini Terme
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi → back through Montecatini Terme is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Montecatini Terme to back through Palais de Seravezza
back through Montecatini Terme → back through Palais de Seravezza is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palais de Seravezza to Pisa
back through Palais de Seravezza → Pisa is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.