Why this ride
A 372 km round trip from Verona - roughly 6 h 27 in the saddle. It goes by way of Frassino, Mantua and Sabbioneta, Sabbioneta and Bassa collina reggiana. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
City of Verona and Bassa collina reggiana
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 372 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 27
- 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 33 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 33 km
- Named road
- Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. City of Verona
Verona is where the north of Italy starts to feel like the south, and where history piles up in layers so thick that you trip over them. The Roman amphitheatre, the Arena, still dominates Piazza Bra and still hosts opera in summer, with tens of thousands of people sitting on stone steps two thousand years old. The Adige river swings through town in a double bend, crossed by bridges including the Ponte Pietra, part Roman and rebuilt after the Germans blew it up in 1945. And of course there is Juliet's balcony, which was added to a medieval house in the twentieth century to satisfy visitors searching for the Shakespeare story; people queue to rub the breast of her bronze statue for luck.
Read the complete City of Verona write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
City of Verona is where the day begins. Next is Frassino.
2. Frassino
Just outside Peschiera del Garda, at the southern tip of the lake, the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Frassino stands among vineyards and fields. According to legend, in 1510 a farmer working in his vineyard was threatened by a snake, prayed to the Virgin and found a small statue of the Madonna in the branches of an ash tree, frassino in Italian. The snake disappeared, and the sanctuary was built on the spot. Today it is a Franciscan church and convent, with a cloister and a collection of votive offerings left by the grateful over the centuries.
Read the complete Frassino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Frassino comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mantua and Sabbioneta.
3. Mantua and Sabbioneta
Approach Mantua from the north across the causeway and you see why it was so hard to conquer: the city rises from water on three sides, encircled by lakes formed from the river Mincio, its domes and towers reflected in the still surface. For nearly four centuries it belonged to the Gonzaga family, who turned a marshy town into one of the most brilliant courts of the Renaissance, and Mantua is listed by UNESCO together with Sabbioneta, the small ideal city that a branch of the same family built some thirty kilometres away.
Read the complete Mantua and Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach Mantua and Sabbioneta. Next is Sabbioneta.
4. Sabbioneta
Sabbioneta is a Renaissance experiment: a whole town built from scratch in the second half of the sixteenth century by Vespasiano Gonzaga, a soldier, scholar and minor prince of the great Mantuan family, who wanted a capital laid out according to the ideals of the age. He got it. Inside its star-shaped walls the streets run in a regular grid, and in a few hundred metres you pass a ducal palace, a long gallery built to show off his collection of ancient sculpture, a summer palace, and one of the earliest purpose-built theatres in Europe, the Teatro all'Antica, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Sabbioneta and Mantua were listed together by UNESCO in 2008 as two contrasting visions of the Renaissance city.
Read the complete Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sabbioneta, about halfway. Next is Bassa collina reggiana.
5. Bassa collina reggiana
The low hills south of Reggio Emilia, where the Po plain starts to ripple up toward the Apennines, hide a strange geology: outcrops of gypsum, the glittering crystalline rock left behind when ancient seas evaporated millions of years ago. Water dissolves gypsum easily, and over time it has carved caves, sinkholes and blind valleys into these hills. The Bassa Collina Reggiana, the low Reggio hill country, is part of the UNESCO site Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines, listed in 2023, and around Borzano, Albinea and Vezzano sul Crostolo you can see the white and grey gypsum cliffs poking through the woods and vineyards.
Read the complete Bassa collina reggiana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bassa collina reggiana sits at 181 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sabbioneta.
6. back through Sabbioneta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Sabbioneta comes up about 244 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Mantua and Sabbioneta.
7. back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mantua and Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 282 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Mantua and Sabbioneta. Next is back through Frassino.
8. back through Frassino
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Frassino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Frassino, late in the day. Next is City of Verona.
9. City of Verona
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete City of Verona write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 372 km.
Leg by leg
City of Verona to Frassino
City of Verona → Frassino is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Frassino to Mantua and Sabbioneta
Frassino → Mantua and Sabbioneta is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mantua and Sabbioneta to Sabbioneta
Mantua and Sabbioneta → Sabbioneta is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sabbioneta to Bassa collina reggiana
Sabbioneta → Bassa collina reggiana is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bassa collina reggiana to back through Sabbioneta
Bassa collina reggiana → back through Sabbioneta is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sabbioneta to back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
back through Sabbioneta → back through Mantua and Sabbioneta is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta to back through Frassino
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta → back through Frassino is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Frassino to City of Verona
back through Frassino → City of Verona is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Villa Serego and Bassa collina reggiana · 345 km
- Sabbioneta and Villa Pisani Ferri · 335 km
- Sabbioneta and Bande - Corte Carpani · 273 km