CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 458 km round trip from Desenzano del Garda - roughly 8 h 18 in the saddle. The stops in between: The monumental area with the monastic comp, Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te, Parco Pluritematico and Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Italy into Switzerland - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 91 km this is Stelvio Pass, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lavagnone is where the day begins. Next is The monumental area with the monastic comp.
The centre of Brescia holds two thousand years of layered history within a few hundred metres. Along the old Roman main street, the Capitolium temple raised under Vespasian still lifts its columns above the forum, with a Roman theatre beside it, and a short walk away the monastery of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia spreads its cloisters and churches over the site of Roman houses. The monastery was founded in the eighth century by Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, and his wife Ansa; their daughter Ermengarda, rejected by Charlemagne, is said to have ended her days here.
Read the complete The monumental area with the monastic comp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The monumental area with the monastic comp comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te.
Valcamonica, the long valley of the Oglio river north of Lake Iseo, holds one of the largest collections of prehistoric rock carvings in the world, with hundreds of thousands of figures pecked into smooth glacier-polished rocks over thousands of years. It was the first site in Italy to be listed by UNESCO, in 1979. The Luine park, on a wooded hill above Darfo Boario Terme at the southern end of the valley, is one of the places where you can see these engravings up close, with paths leading between rock surfaces covered in figures of animals, people, weapons and mysterious symbols.
Read the complete Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te. Next is Parco Pluritematico.
Valcamonica holds one of the largest collections of prehistoric rock carvings in the world, some three hundred thousand figures pecked into the smooth glacier-polished rocks of the valley over thousands of years, from hunters and deer to warriors, ploughs, houses and mysterious symbols. It was the first Italian site to be listed by UNESCO, in 1979. In the upper valley, near Sonico, a few kilometres south of Edolo, a multi-themed park around the rocks of Còren de le Fate, the fairies' rock, offers carvings, nature trails and an insight into the life of the valley.
Read the complete Parco Pluritematico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Parco Pluritematico, about halfway. Next is Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair.
In the high, narrow Val Mustair, at the point where Switzerland meets South Tyrol and the Stelvio national park, there is a Benedictine convent that was founded, according to tradition, by Charlemagne himself around the year 800. Whether or not the emperor's role is exactly as the legend has it, the convent of St John is certainly Carolingian, and it keeps the largest cycle of Carolingian wall paintings anywhere. The figures, painted in the early ninth century, cover the walls of the church in red, yellow and green, in a lively, slightly naive style, with scenes from the life of David and the story of Christ, and later Romanesque frescoes were painted over them in places. UNESCO listed it in 1983.
Read the complete Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair sits at 205 km, about halfway. Next is back through Parco Pluritematico.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Parco Pluritematico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Parco Pluritematico comes up about 319 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 363 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te. Next is back through The monumental area with the monastic comp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The monumental area with the monastic comp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The monumental area with the monastic comp, late in the day. Next is Lavagnone.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lavagnone write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 458 km.
Lavagnone → The monumental area with the monastic comp is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The monumental area with the monastic comp → Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te → Parco Pluritematico is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parco Pluritematico → Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair → back through Parco Pluritematico is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Parco Pluritematico → back through Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te → back through The monumental area with the monastic comp is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The monumental area with the monastic comp → Lavagnone is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.