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 205 km round trip from Mantova - roughly 4 h 15 in the saddle. On the way it passes Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli, San Sivino, The monumental area with the monastic comp and back through San Sivino. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 41 km this is Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
South of Lake Garda, the land rises into a series of low hills, the moraines left behind by the glacier that carved the lake. Among them, in a hollow, lies a small heart-shaped lake, and on a ridge above it stands the walled village of Castellaro Lagusello, one of the most charming in Lombardy. The lake and its marshes are a nature reserve, and on its shore, at Fondo Tacoli, archaeologists found the remains of a Bronze Age pile dwelling settlement, part of the UNESCO group of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach San Sivino. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 129 km, about halfway. Next is back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli comes up about 172 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Mantoue closes the day.
Mantoue → Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → San Sivino is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Sivino → The monumental area with the monastic comp is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The monumental area with the monastic comp → back through San Sivino is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through San Sivino → back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → Mantoue is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.