Why this ride
From Montecatini-Terme it runs 183 km to Montecatini-Terme; allow about 3 h 58 of riding. The stops in between: Villa de Poggio a Caiano, Villa Medici de Fiesole, Villa de Artimino and back through Villa Medici de Fiesole.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Montecatini Terme and Villa de Artimino
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 183 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 58
- 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
Chiantigiana Wine Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 24 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 24 km
- Named road
- Chiantigiana Wine Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Montecatini Terme
The water at Montecatini has been drunk for health since the Middle Ages, but it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the town became one of the great spa resorts of Europe, with grand thermal establishments built in neoclassical, Liberty and Art Deco styles, set in parks of plane trees and pines. The Tettuccio, with its marble colonnades and frescoes, is the most famous, a temple of water where visitors drink from taps along a counter. In 2021 Montecatini became part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Vichy and others.
Read the complete Montecatini Terme write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Montecatini Terme is where the day begins. Next is Villa de Poggio a Caiano.
2. Villa de Poggio a Caiano
Of all the Medici villas, Poggio a Caiano is the one that changed architecture. Lorenzo the Magnificent commissioned it from Giuliano da Sangallo in the 1480s, and the result was something new: a country house raised on an arcaded platform, with a portico topped by a classical pediment, the first time a temple front had been put on a private villa since antiquity. Palladio would develop the idea in the Veneto decades later. Inside, the great hall is decorated with frescoes by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and others, and Pontormo's lunette of Vertumnus and Pomona, with its lazy figures lounging on a wall, is one of the most charming paintings of the Renaissance. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany.
Read the complete Villa de Poggio a Caiano write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa de Poggio a Caiano comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Medici de Fiesole.
3. Villa Medici de Fiesole
Fiesole sits on a hill above Florence, and it has looked down on the city for much longer than Florence has existed. The Etruscans founded a settlement here, and the Romans built a theatre, baths and a temple that are still visible. When the Medici came to power in the fifteenth century they chose the slope below Fiesole for a country villa, and Giovanni de' Medici, the younger son of Cosimo, commissioned Michelozzo to design one around 1450. The result, Villa Medici, is built on terraces cut into the hillside, with a loggia that opens out over a sweeping view of the Arno valley and the dome of Florence cathedral.
Read the complete Villa Medici de Fiesole write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Medici de Fiesole. Next is Villa de Artimino.
4. Villa de Artimino
The Medici liked to hunt, and Ferdinando I wanted somewhere to do it. In the late sixteenth century the grand duke commissioned the architect Bernardo Buontalenti to build him a hunting lodge on the hill of Artimino, west of Florence, and the result was a large, plain and strangely beautiful villa with a loggia, a terrace and a forest of chimneys. It is nicknamed the villa of the hundred chimneys, though there are fewer than that, and the stacks along the roofline give the building a rhythm that you can recognise from a long way off. It is one of the Medici villas and gardens that UNESCO listed in 2013 for the way they shaped the Italian idea of a country house.
Read the complete Villa de Artimino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa de Artimino, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Medici de Fiesole.
5. back through Villa Medici de Fiesole
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Medici de Fiesole write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Medici de Fiesole sits at 112 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano.
6. back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Poggio a Caiano write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano comes up about 144 km into the recorded legs. Next is Montecatini Terme.
7. Montecatini Terme
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Montecatini Terme write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Montecatini Terme closes the day.
Leg by leg
Montecatini Terme to Villa de Poggio a Caiano
Montecatini Terme → Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano to Villa Medici de Fiesole
Villa de Poggio a Caiano → Villa Medici de Fiesole is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Medici de Fiesole to Villa de Artimino
Villa Medici de Fiesole → Villa de Artimino is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Artimino to back through Villa Medici de Fiesole
Villa de Artimino → back through Villa Medici de Fiesole is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Medici de Fiesole to back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano
back through Villa Medici de Fiesole → back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano to Montecatini Terme
back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano → Montecatini Terme is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.