Why this ride
196 km from Florence to Florence, about 4 h 17 of riding. On the way it passes Villa de Artimino, Villa de Cerreto Guidi, Villa La Magia and Montecatini Terme.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Jardin de Boboli and Montecatini Terme
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 196 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 17
- 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
Chiantigiana Wine Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 23 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 23 km
- Named road
- Chiantigiana Wine Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Jardin de Boboli
Cosimo I's wife, Eleonora of Toledo, bought a half-finished palace on the south bank of the Arno in 1549 and decided it needed a garden. The Boboli, behind the Pitti Palace, rises up a steep hill in a series of terraces, avenues and lawns, and it became the model for formal gardens across Europe, including Versailles. The design began under the sculptor Tribolo and was carried on by other Medici artists over the next century. A curved amphitheatre of grass behind the palace was used for festivals and plays, and the great grotto designed by Buontalenti has fantastical stone carvings and a Venus bathing in a hidden room.
Read the complete Jardin de Boboli write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jardin de Boboli is where the day begins. Next is Villa de Artimino.
2. Villa de Artimino
The Medici liked to hunt, and Ferdinando I wanted somewhere to do it. In the late sixteenth century the grand duke commissioned the architect Bernardo Buontalenti to build him a hunting lodge on the hill of Artimino, west of Florence, and the result was a large, plain and strangely beautiful villa with a loggia, a terrace and a forest of chimneys. It is nicknamed the villa of the hundred chimneys, though there are fewer than that, and the stacks along the roofline give the building a rhythm that you can recognise from a long way off. It is one of the Medici villas and gardens that UNESCO listed in 2013 for the way they shaped the Italian idea of a country house.
Read the complete Villa de Artimino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa de Artimino comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de Cerreto Guidi.
3. Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Cosimo I de' Medici liked to hunt, and in the 1560s he had a villa built on a hilltop at Cerreto Guidi, on the edge of the marshes and woods west of Florence, where the game was plentiful. From the outside it is austere, a solid block of stone facing a square, but the approach is spectacular: a pair of great brick ramps, known as the Medici bridges, zigzag up to the entrance. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany, and it holds a dark legend. Cosimo's daughter Isabella died here in 1576, and the story goes that she was murdered by her husband, Paolo Giordano Orsini, for her alleged infidelity. Whether it is true or not, it is told to every visitor.
Read the complete Villa de Cerreto Guidi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 45 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa de Cerreto Guidi. Next is Villa La Magia.
4. Villa La Magia
The Medici loved the countryside, especially when it came with hunting grounds, and Villa La Magia at Quarrata was one of their country retreats at the foot of the Montalbano hills, a few kilometres south of Pistoia. Francesco I de' Medici bought it in the sixteenth century to use as a hunting lodge, and it belongs to the World Heritage inscription for the Medici villas and gardens of Tuscany. The villa is a solid rectangular building around a courtyard, more farmhouse than palace, with a park that has become home to contemporary art installations, a rather unexpected touch for a Renaissance hunting lodge.
Read the complete Villa La Magia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa La Magia, about halfway. Next is Montecatini Terme.
5. Montecatini Terme
The water at Montecatini has been drunk for health since the Middle Ages, but it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the town became one of the great spa resorts of Europe, with grand thermal establishments built in neoclassical, Liberty and Art Deco styles, set in parks of plane trees and pines. The Tettuccio, with its marble colonnades and frescoes, is the most famous, a temple of water where visitors drink from taps along a counter. In 2021 Montecatini became part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Vichy and others.
Read the complete Montecatini Terme write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Montecatini Terme sits at 80 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa La Magia.
6. back through Villa La Magia
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa La Magia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa La Magia comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi.
7. back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Cerreto Guidi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 150 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi. Next is back through Villa de Artimino.
8. back through Villa de Artimino
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Artimino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa de Artimino, late in the day. Next is Jardin de Boboli.
9. Jardin de Boboli
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jardin de Boboli 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 196 km.
Leg by leg
Jardin de Boboli to Villa de Artimino
Jardin de Boboli → Villa de Artimino is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Artimino to Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Villa de Artimino → Villa de Cerreto Guidi is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Cerreto Guidi to Villa La Magia
Villa de Cerreto Guidi → Villa La Magia is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa La Magia to Montecatini Terme
Villa La Magia → Montecatini Terme is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Montecatini Terme to back through Villa La Magia
Montecatini Terme → back through Villa La Magia is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa La Magia to back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi
back through Villa La Magia → back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi to back through Villa de Artimino
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi → back through Villa de Artimino is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Artimino to Jardin de Boboli
back through Villa de Artimino → Jardin de Boboli is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.