Why this ride
From Desenzano del Garda it runs 243 km to Desenzano del Garda; allow about 4 h 45 of riding. It goes by way of Sabbioneta, Bassa collina reggiana and back through Sabbioneta.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Lavagnone and Bassa collina reggiana
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 243 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 45
- 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. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Sabbioneta.
2. 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 comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bassa collina reggiana.
3. 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
about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach Bassa collina reggiana. Next is back through Sabbioneta.
4. 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, late in the day. Next is Lavagnone.
5. 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 at Lavagnone. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Lavagnone to Sabbioneta
Lavagnone → Sabbioneta is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sabbioneta to Bassa collina reggiana
Sabbioneta → Bassa collina reggiana is 58 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 Lavagnone
back through Sabbioneta → Lavagnone is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Sabbioneta and Mantua and Sabbioneta · 132 km
- Sabbioneta and San Sivino · 258 km