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CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba and The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
206 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 20
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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

206 km from Aquileia to Aquileia, about 4 h 20 of riding. It goes by way of Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power, City Fortress of Palmanova, The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp and back through City Fortress of Palmanova. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.

Scenic road chapters

Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba → Longobards in Italy. Plac

This part of the ride is 44 km of Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba → Longobards in Italy. Plac.

Chapter facts
Length
44 km

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba

    Aquileia today is a village of fewer than three thousand people in the flat farmland of Friuli, near the head of the Adriatic, but two thousand years ago it was one of the largest and richest cities of the Roman Empire. Founded as a Latin colony in 181 BC to guard the northeastern approaches to Italy, it grew into a great trading port, connected to the sea by a river and a canal, through which amber, wine, oil and glass moved between the Mediterranean and the lands beyond the Alps. Attila sacked it in 452, and many of its people fled to the lagoons, where their descendants helped found Venice and Grado.

    Read the complete Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba is where the day begins. Next is Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power, 37 km on.

  2. 2. Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power

    Cividale del Friuli was founded as Forum Iulii, a market town established by Julius Caesar, and it gave its name to the whole region of Friuli. In 568, when the Lombards crossed the Alps and invaded Italy, Cividale was the first city they took, and it became the seat of their first duchy. The Lombards ruled much of Italy for two centuries, and Cividale preserves some of the finest traces of their culture. The Tempietto Longobardo, a small eighth-century chapel overlooking the river, holds a row of stucco female saints of extraordinary grace, among the most beautiful works of art of the early Middle Ages. It is the centrepiece of the UNESCO listing of the Longobards in Italy, Places of the Power, along with sites from Brescia to Benevento. The National Archaeological Museum displays jewellery, weapons and grave goods from Lombard tombs.

    Read the complete Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is City Fortress of Palmanova.

  3. 3. City Fortress of Palmanova

    From the air Palmanova is a perfect nine-pointed star, and even from the saddle you can feel the geometry. The roads come in through monumental gates, cross the moats and ramparts, and run dead straight to a vast hexagonal piazza in the middle, where the whole town seems to stop and look at itself. It is one of the purest examples of an ideal Renaissance city ever built, and it sits on the flat Friulian plain between Udine and the Adriatic like a diagram that somebody forgot to take back.

    Read the complete City Fortress of Palmanova write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach City Fortress of Palmanova. Next is The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp.

  4. 4. The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp

    Cividale del Friuli sits where the Natisone river leaves its green valleys and meets the Friulian plain, in the far north-east of Italy, a few kilometres from the Slovenian border. Julius Caesar is said to have founded it as Forum Iulii, which later gave the whole region its name, and in 568 the Lombards, a Germanic people who invaded Italy, made it the seat of their first duchy. UNESCO lists seven Lombard sites across Italy together, and Cividale holds several, among them the Gastaldaga area, where the royal governor, the gastald, had his residence, and the episcopal complex with its cathedral, baptistery and museum. The label cuts off its words, but those are the two places it means.

    Read the complete The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp, about halfway. Next is back through City Fortress of Palmanova.

  5. 5. back through City Fortress of Palmanova

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete City Fortress of Palmanova write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    back through City Fortress of Palmanova sits at 149 km, about halfway. Next is back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power, 37 km on.

  6. 6. back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power comes up about 158 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba.

  7. 7. Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba closes the day.

Leg by leg

Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba to Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power

Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba → Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power to City Fortress of Palmanova

Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power → City Fortress of Palmanova is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

City Fortress of Palmanova to The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp

City Fortress of Palmanova → The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp to back through City Fortress of Palmanova

The Gastaldaga area and the Episcopal comp → back through City Fortress of Palmanova is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through City Fortress of Palmanova to back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power

back through City Fortress of Palmanova → back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power to Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba

back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power → Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Ba is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

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