Why this ride
From Sirmione it runs 112 km to Sirmione; allow about 2 h 37 of riding. On the way it passes Lucone, The monumental area with the monastic comp and back through Lucone. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Lugana Vecchia and The monumental area with the monastic comp
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 112 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 37
- 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 25 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
- 25 km
- Named road
- Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Lugana Vecchia
Lake Garda's southern shore is a landscape made by ice. At the end of the last glaciation a huge tongue of ice pushed out of the Alps and left behind a ring of moraine hills, curved like an amphitheatre, with the lake in the middle and the Po plain beyond. The shallow bay near Sirmione, where the lake meets the low land, was settled very early, and Lugana Vecchia is one of the prehistoric pile-dwelling sites around the Alps that UNESCO has grouped together as a World Heritage Site. Villages of timber houses on stilts stood in the shallows or on the shore here in the Bronze Age, and the wet ground preserved wood, textiles and tools that would have rotted elsewhere.
Read the complete Lugana Vecchia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lugana Vecchia is where the day begins. Next is Lucone.
2. 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
Lucone comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is The monumental area with the monastic comp.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach The monumental area with the monastic comp. Next is back through Lucone.
4. back through Lucone
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Lucone, late in the day. Next is Lugana Vecchia.
5. Lugana Vecchia
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lugana Vecchia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Lugana Vecchia. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Lugana Vecchia to Lucone
Lugana Vecchia → Lucone is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lucone to The monumental area with the monastic comp
Lucone → The monumental area with the monastic comp is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The monumental area with the monastic comp to back through Lucone
The monumental area with the monastic comp → back through Lucone is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lucone to Lugana Vecchia
back through Lucone → Lugana Vecchia is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.