CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 461 km round trip from Moncalieri - roughly 7 h 16 in the saddle. On the way it passes Castello di Racconigi, Grinzane Cavour Castle, Nizza Monferrato and Barbera and Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of t. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 38 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The Savoy dynasty liked a country house with a view, and Moncalieri Castle, perched on a hill above the Po, was one of their favourites. Built on older foundations, it was remodelled by the family over several centuries and served as a royal residence, hosting kings, queens and a number of historic decisions. In 1849, after the defeat at Novara, King Victor Emmanuel II issued from here the Proclamation of Moncalieri, addressed to the voters, which helped steady the kingdom in a dangerous moment. The castle is part of the group of Savoy residences around Turin that UNESCO listed in 1997, and part of it is still used by the Carabinieri.
Read the complete Castello di Moncalieri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castello di Moncalieri is where the day begins. Next is Castello di Racconigi.
Racconigi is a small town on the plain south of Turin, in Piedmont, surrounded by fields of maize and rice and lines of poplars. It is dominated by its castle, a grand residence of the House of Savoy, which ruled Piedmont and later Italy. Originally a medieval fortress, it was transformed over the centuries into a palace, with Baroque and neoclassical façades, and surrounded by a vast park with lakes, woods and a farm. The castle is part of the UNESCO-listed Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, inscribed in 1997.
Read the complete Castello di Racconigi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castello di Racconigi comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grinzane Cavour Castle.
Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the man who more or less engineered the unification of Italy, spent years as mayor of this little Langhe village before he went on to bigger things, and the square brick castle on its knoll still carries his name. He experimented with winemaking here too, at a time when Barolo was still finding its modern form, so the building sits at a neat crossroads of Piedmontese politics and Piedmontese wine.
Read the complete Grinzane Cavour Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 77 km into the recorded legs you reach Grinzane Cavour Castle. Next is Nizza Monferrato and Barbera.
Barbera is the everyday red of Piedmont, the wine on every trattoria table, and around Nizza Monferrato it has been raised to something more serious. The hills between Nizza, Vinchio, Castelnuovo Calcea and Mombercelli are covered in vines, planted in rows that follow the contours of the slopes, and the best wines from this area carry their own designation, Nizza DOCG, made from barbera alone. The vineyard landscapes of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato were listed by UNESCO in 2014, and this corner of the Asti hills is a fine example of what that means: a working landscape shaped by centuries of farming, with hilltop villages, brick churches, and small family wineries at the end of gravel tracks.
Read the complete Nizza Monferrato and Barbera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nizza Monferrato and Barbera, about halfway. Next is Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of t.
Genoa never tried to be pretty in the way Florence or Venice did. It tried to be rich, and succeeded, and the Strade Nuove, the new streets laid out in the sixteenth century, are the proof. The city's banking families, who financed the Spanish crown for decades, built palaces along Via Garibaldi, Via Balbi and Via Cairoli, and they did it on a steep, crowded slope where there was no room for gardens, so the grandeur is stacked into courtyards, loggias and monumental staircases. The palaces were registered in the Rolli, official lists that told the republic which houses should host visiting kings and cardinals, a bit like a medieval hotel guide for diplomats. UNESCO listed the system in 2006.
Read the complete Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of t write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of t sits at 201 km, about halfway. Next is back through Nizza Monferrato and Barbera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nizza Monferrato and Barbera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nizza Monferrato and Barbera comes up about 337 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grinzane Cavour Castle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grinzane Cavour Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 381 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grinzane Cavour Castle. Next is back through Castello di Racconigi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castello di Racconigi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castello di Racconigi, late in the day. Next is Castello di Moncalieri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castello di Moncalieri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 461 km.
Castello di Moncalieri → Castello di Racconigi is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castello di Racconigi → Grinzane Cavour Castle is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grinzane Cavour Castle → Nizza Monferrato and Barbera is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nizza Monferrato and Barbera → Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of t is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of t → back through Nizza Monferrato and Barbera is 107 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Nizza Monferrato and Barbera → back through Grinzane Cavour Castle is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grinzane Cavour Castle → back through Castello di Racconigi is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castello di Racconigi → Castello di Moncalieri is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.