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.
From Mantova it runs 310 km to Mantova; allow about 5 h 28 of riding. On the way it passes San Sivino, Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te and back through San Sivino. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Mantua rises out of three artificial lakes formed by the river Mincio, a Renaissance city set in the flat Po plain, and in summer the air carries the smell of water and reeds. The Gonzaga family ruled here for almost four centuries, and they turned a modest town into one of the most brilliant courts in Italy. In the Ducal Palace, a labyrinth of hundreds of rooms, Andrea Mantegna painted the Camera degli Sposi, a small chamber whose ceiling shows an illusionistic oculus with faces and cherubs peering down. Not far away, the Palazzo Te, built for Federico Gonzaga by Giulio Romano, is a pleasure villa with playful frescoes of giants falling.
Read the complete Mantoue write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mantoue is where the day begins. Next is San Sivino.
On the western shore of Lake Garda, between Manerba and Moniga, the little bay of San Sivino hides something very old under its shallows. People lived here in the Bronze Age in villages built on wooden piles at the water's edge, and the remains of their posts, tools and pottery survive in the mud of the lake. The site is one of the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps that UNESCO listed in 2011, a series of more than a hundred sites spread across six countries. There is nothing to see above the water, but knowing that the shore was settled thousands of years ago adds a quiet depth to an afternoon by the lake.
Read the complete San Sivino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Sivino comes up about 58 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 153 km into the recorded legs you reach Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te. Next is back through San Sivino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Sivino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through San Sivino, late in the day. Next is Mantoue.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mantoue write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Mantoue. That is the ride.
Mantoue → San Sivino is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Sivino → Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Parco Comunale di Luine di Darfo-Boario Te → back through San Sivino is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through San Sivino → Mantoue is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.