Certosa and Villa Pisani

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Certosa

   Bologna has a way of making even its dead look sociable. The Certosa, the monumental cemetery just north-west of the old walls, began life as a Carthusian monastery and was turned into a public burial ground at the start of the nineteenth century, when Napoleonic rules said the dead should lie outside the city. The monks' cloisters and chapels were simply adapted, and over the next two centuries families commissioned sculpture on a scale that makes the place feel like an open-air museum. Marble weeping women, family portraits in stone, scenes from daily life, and a lot of whiskered gentlemen in frock coats line long arcades.

   Read the complete Certosa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Certosa is where the day begins. Next is Ferrara.

2. 2. Ferrara

   Ferrara is a city built for walking and cycling, with flat streets, a ring of Renaissance walls nine kilometres long, and so many bicycles that it is called the city of bicycles. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, under the Este family, it was one of the great courts of Renaissance Italy, and the Estense castle, with its moat and drawbridges, still dominates the centre. The city's Renaissance planning, especially the Herculean Addition, a new quarter laid out in the late fifteenth century, led historians to call it the first modern city in Europe, and UNESCO has inscribed Ferrara and the Po Delta as a World Heritage Site.

   Read the complete Ferrara write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Ferrara comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Pisani.

3. 3. Villa Pisani

   Montagnana is one of the best-preserved walled towns in Europe, with its entire ring of medieval brick walls, towers and gates still standing around the old centre, and just outside the eastern gate stands a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Pisani at Montagnana, built for Francesco Pisani in the 1550s, is a two-storey palace with a classical façade facing the road, part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Unlike most of Palladio's country villas, it sits right at the edge of town, more urban palazzo than farmhouse, and its elegant columns make a striking contrast with the rugged walls nearby.

   Read the complete Villa Pisani write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Pisani. Next is back through Ferrara.

4. 4. back through Ferrara

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ferrara write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Ferrara, late in the day. Next is Certosa.

5. 5. Certosa

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Certosa write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Certosa. That is the ride.