Why this ride
A 76 km round trip from Peschiera del Garda - roughly 1 h 52 in the saddle. It goes by way of Lavagnone, Lucone and back through Lavagnone.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda and Lucone
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 76 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 52
- 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
Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 20 km this is Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 20 km
- Named road
- Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Lavagnone.
2. Lavagnone
Lavagnone does not look like much, and that is rather the point. South of Lake Garda, behind Desenzano, the landscape is a rumple of low hills left by the glacier that once filled the lake basin, and in a hollow among them lies a small peat basin that was once a shallow lake. Around four thousand years ago, in the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber piles at its edge, and when the water level fell and the peat built up, the wood was preserved in the mud like a time capsule.
Read the complete Lavagnone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lavagnone comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lucone.
3. Lucone
Lucone is a small basin in the green hills of the Valtènesi, just west of Lake Garda, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. Once there was a little lake here, and during the Bronze Age people built villages of wooden houses raised on piles along its shore. The lake later turned to marsh and peat, which preserved the timbers, pottery and organic remains in waterlogged conditions for thousands of years. What you see today is a gentle, wooded hollow among vineyards and fields, and you need some imagination; the finds are in the archaeological museum in nearby Gavardo.
Read the complete Lucone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 37 km into the recorded legs you reach Lucone. Next is back through Lavagnone.
4. back through Lavagnone
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lavagnone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Lavagnone, late in the day. Next is Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda.
5. 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 at Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda to Lavagnone
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda → Lavagnone is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lavagnone to Lucone
Lavagnone → Lucone is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lucone to back through Lavagnone
Lucone → back through Lavagnone is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lavagnone to Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
back through Lavagnone → Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.