Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari and Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
133 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 09
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.
A 133 km round trip from Milan - roughly 2 h 09 in the saddle. The stops in between: Crespi d'Adda, Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and back through Crespi d'Adda. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari
Most people who come to Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan are here for one painting, and they are right to be. On the wall of the old refectory of the Dominican convent, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Last Supper in the 1490s for Duke Ludovico Sforza, and despite his experimental technique, which began to fail almost at once, despite centuries of damage and despite a bomb that destroyed much of the building in 1943, the painting survives. The wall was protected with sandbags, and the long restoration completed in 1999 revealed colours and faces that had been hidden for centuries.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Mari is where the day begins. Next is Crespi d'Adda.
2. Crespi d'Adda
Crespi d'Adda is a whole company town, built from 1878 by the Crespi family of cotton manufacturers on a bend of the Adda river where the water could turn their turbines. Around the mill they laid out rows of neat houses with gardens for the workers, larger villas for the managers, a school, a church that copies the Renaissance church of Santa Maria di Piazza in Busto Arsizio, a washhouse, a hospital, and, on a slight rise at the end of the main street, a cemetery with a strange, almost Mayan-looking mausoleum for the family. It was a paternalistic utopia in which the company looked after its workers from cradle to grave, and UNESCO listed it in 1995 as one of the best-preserved examples of its kind in Europe.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Crespi d'Adda comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th.
3. Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th
Bergamo is two cities: the busy modern town on the plain, and the Città Alta on the hill above, enclosed by massive walls built by the Republic of Venice between 1561 and 1588. Bergamo was then the westernmost outpost of Venice's mainland territory, facing the Spanish-ruled Duchy of Milan, and the walls, more than five kilometres long, were designed to withstand artillery, with bastions, platforms and gates. They were never seriously tested in battle, which is why they are so well preserved. In 2017 UNESCO listed them, together with other Venetian fortifications in Italy, Croatia and Montenegro, as the Venetian Works of Defence.