Why this ride
A 217 km round trip from Portovenere - roughly 3 h in the saddle. On the way it passes Palais de Seravezza, Piazza del Duomo and back through Palais de Seravezza. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Isola Palmaria and Piazza del Duomo
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 217 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 34
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Isola Palmaria
Isola Palmaria is the biggest of the three islands that lie just off the southern tip of the Ligurian coast near Porto Venere, the others being the tiny Tino and Tinetto. Together with the Cinque Terre and Porto Venere itself, they make up a UNESCO World Heritage landscape, and on a clear morning the sight of the cliffs plunging into the water, with pastel houses on the headland opposite, is as good as anything on the Italian coast. The Gulf of La Spezia was nicknamed the Gulf of Poets after the English writers who came here, including Byron, who is said to have swum across to Lerici from a grotto at Porto Venere that now carries his name.
Read the complete Isola Palmaria write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Isola Palmaria is where the day begins. Next is Palais de Seravezza.
2. Palais de Seravezza
Seravezza is where the Apuan Alps meet the Versilia coast in northern Tuscany. Behind the beaches of Forte dei Marmi, the mountains rise abruptly, white with marble scars, and Seravezza sits at the mouth of a valley where two rivers join. The Palazzo Mediceo, built in the 1560s for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was a summer residence and a base for overseeing the region's marble quarries and silver mines. It is one of the Medici villas and gardens inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2013, and today it hosts museums and exhibitions.
Read the complete Palais de Seravezza write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palais de Seravezza comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Piazza del Duomo.
3. Piazza del Duomo
Nothing prepares you for that first glimpse through the gateway. A wide green lawn, and set on it like ornaments on a cloth, the white marble cathedral, the round baptistery, the cemetery cloister of the Camposanto, and of course the bell tower, leaning at an angle that looks wrong no matter how many photographs you have seen. The Piazza del Duomo in Pisa, also called the Field of Miracles, was one of the first places in Italy to be listed by UNESCO, back in 1987.
Read the complete Piazza del Duomo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach Piazza del Duomo. Next is back through Palais de Seravezza.
4. back through Palais de Seravezza
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palais de Seravezza write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Palais de Seravezza, late in the day. Next is Isola Palmaria.
5. Isola Palmaria
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Isola Palmaria write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Isola Palmaria. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Isola Palmaria to Palais de Seravezza
Isola Palmaria → Palais de Seravezza is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palais de Seravezza to Piazza del Duomo
Palais de Seravezza → Piazza del Duomo is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Piazza del Duomo to back through Palais de Seravezza
Piazza del Duomo → back through Palais de Seravezza is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palais de Seravezza to Isola Palmaria
back through Palais de Seravezza → Isola Palmaria is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.