Why this ride
262 km from Padova to Padova, about 3 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of Villa Badoer, MamBo and back through Villa Badoer. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Botanical Garden and MamBo
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 262 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 19
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 77 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 77 km
- Named road
- Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Botanical Garden
The Orto Botanico of Padua was founded in 1545 by the university, which needed a place to grow medicinal plants for the study of medicine, and it is the oldest university botanical garden in the world still in its original location. Its layout has hardly changed in nearly five centuries: a circular wall enclosing a square divided into quarters, with geometric flowerbeds, fountains and gates, a symbolic representation of the world. One of its most famous inhabitants is a palm tree planted in 1585, known as Goethe's palm because the poet studied it during his Italian journey in 1786 and drew from it ideas about the metamorphosis of plants. The garden was listed by UNESCO in 1997, and a modern greenhouse, the Garden of Biodiversity, now sits beside the historic garden, showing plants from different climates around the world.
Read the complete Botanical Garden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Botanical Garden is where the day begins. Next is Villa Badoer.
2. Villa Badoer
Fratta Polesine is a quiet village in the Polesine, the flat, fertile land between the Adige and the Po in the south of the Veneto, and its pride is a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Badoer, built in the 1550s for Francesco Badoer, a Venetian nobleman, stands on a raised platform above the surrounding fields, with a temple-front portico, curved colonnades sweeping out on either side to farm buildings, and a grand staircase. It was the first of Palladio's villas to use the curved barchesse, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Inside, the walls carry frescoes, and the villa houses a museum about the Polesine and its history.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Badoer comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is MamBo.
3. MamBo
Not every checkpoint on a ride needs to be old. MamBo, the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, opened in 2007 in a former municipal bakery on the northern edge of the old centre, and the building says a lot about how Bologna thinks. The city turned the factory where it once baked bread for its people into a home for twentieth-century and contemporary art, with a strong collection of Giorgio Morandi, the painter who spent his whole life in this town painting bottles and jugs on a table, and whose little house lies not far away.
Read the complete MamBo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 131 km into the recorded legs you reach MamBo. Next is back through Villa Badoer.
4. back through Villa Badoer
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Badoer, late in the day. Next is Botanical Garden.
5. Botanical Garden
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Botanical Garden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Botanical Garden. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Botanical Garden to Villa Badoer
Botanical Garden → Villa Badoer is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Badoer to MamBo
Villa Badoer → MamBo is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
MamBo to back through Villa Badoer
MamBo → back through Villa Badoer is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Villa Badoer to Botanical Garden
back through Villa Badoer → Botanical Garden is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.