Why this ride
A 175 km round trip from Verona - roughly 3 h 24 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda, Villa Serego, Belvedere and back through Villa Serego.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
City of Verona and Belvedere
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 175 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 24
- 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 29 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 29 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 Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda.
2. Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Water surrounds Peschiera on every side, and that was the whole idea. The town sits where the River Mincio flows out of the southern end of Lake Garda, and in the sixteenth century the Republic of Venice turned it into a star-shaped fortress with massive pentagonal walls, bastions and moats fed by the lake and the river. Later the Austrians made it one of the four corners of the Quadrilatero, the defensive square of fortresses that guarded their hold on northern Italy in the nineteenth century. In 2017 Peschiera became part of the UNESCO listing of Venetian works of defence between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, alongside Bergamo, Palmanova and fortresses on the Adriatic.
Read the complete Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Serego.
3. Villa Serego
Andrea Palladio built many villas around the Veneto, but the one at Santa Sofia di Pedemonte, in the Valpolicella just north-west of Verona, is the oddball of the family. Commissioned by Marcantonio Serego in the mid-sixteenth century and never finished, it has none of the smooth classical calm of the Rotonda. Instead its courtyard is lined with giant Ionic columns built up from rough, rusticated blocks of local stone, as if the building were half turning back into the hillside. Only part of the planned design was completed, and the effect is wonderfully strange.
Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Serego. Next is Belvedere.
4. Belvedere
South of Lake Garda the mountains step back and the land turns into a theatre of hills. Those are the moraines, left by the glacier that once filled the valley and dropped its load of gravel in a series of curved ridges as it melted. The belvedere on this stretch is part of that gentle amphitheatre, a viewpoint over vineyards and fields on the way between Peschiera del Garda and the old battlefields at San Martino and Solferino, and in clear weather you can see the Alps rising behind the lake.
Read the complete Belvedere write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Belvedere, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Serego.
5. back through Villa Serego
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Serego sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda.
6. back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda comes up about 145 km into the recorded legs. Next is City of Verona.
7. 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
City of Verona closes the day.
Leg by leg
City of Verona to Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
City of Verona → Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda to Villa Serego
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda → Villa Serego is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Serego to Belvedere
Villa Serego → Belvedere is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Belvedere to back through Villa Serego
Belvedere → back through Villa Serego is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Serego to back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
back through Villa Serego → back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda to City of Verona
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda → City of Verona is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.