Skip to content
CurveScout

CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles and Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
393 km
Riding-time estimate
7 h 44
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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

393 km from Padova to Padova, about 7 h 44 of riding. On the way it passes Villa Foscari, Villa Emo, Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va and Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,700 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

    Giotto's chapel in Padua is smaller than most people expect, a plain brick hall tucked behind the Arena gardens, and the first surprise is that you are rationed. Visits are timed and short, and groups wait in a climate-controlled room first so that the breath and humidity of too many people do not harm the paint. Then the doors open and the walls turn blue. Around 1305 the banker Enrico Scrovegni commissioned Giotto to cover the whole interior with the lives of Mary and Christ, and what he painted, people with weight, faces with feeling, a sky that behaves like a sky, changed the course of European painting.

    Read the complete Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles is where the day begins. Next is Villa Foscari.

  2. 2. Villa Foscari

    Locals call it La Malcontenta, the unhappy woman, and the stories about who she was are better than any of them can prove. The legend says a Foscari wife was banished here for her bad behaviour in Venice; the duller truth is that the name probably came from the area or a nearby canal long before the villa existed. Either way, the house Andrea Palladio built for the brothers Nicolò and Alvise Foscari around 1560 is one of his masterpieces, a temple-fronted block raised on a high base above the Brenta canal, looking out over the water like a Roman villa that had wandered down to the lagoon. It forms part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.

    Read the complete Villa Foscari write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Villa Foscari comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Emo.

  3. 3. Villa Emo

    Andrea Palladio built villas for the Venetian nobility as working farms, not just as country houses, and Villa Emo at Fanzolo is perhaps the purest example of that idea. Completed around 1560 for the Emo family, it stands at the centre of a flat, fertile estate, with a long, symmetrical central block flanked by two arcaded wings, the barchesse, which housed the farm buildings, storage and dovecotes. The ramp leading up to the front door was used for threshing grain. Inside, the rooms are decorated with frescoes by Giovanni Battista Zelotti, mythological and allegorical scenes that bring colour and life to the classical architecture. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.

    Read the complete Villa Emo write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Emo. Next is Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va.

  4. 4. Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va

    These are not soft, rolling wine hills. Between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, the foothills of the Pre-Alps rise in steep hogback ridges, sharp crests of rock running east to west, with vines clinging to slopes so steep that much of the work is still done by hand. Grass-covered terraces called ciglioni hold the soil in place, and the result is a patchwork of vines, woods and small villages that UNESCO listed in 2019.

    Read the complete Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va, about halfway. Next is Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti.

  5. 5. Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti

    The Val di San Lucano is a deep, shadowed gash in the southern Dolomites, and the point here lies near Rivamonte and Voltago, in the Agordino, the upper valley of the Cordevole river. The big, pale walls on either side belong to the Pale di San Martino group, one of the nine sets of mountains included in the Dolomites World Heritage listing of 2009, and their sheer rock faces rise more than a thousand metres above the narrow valley floor.

    Read the complete Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti sits at 175 km, about halfway. Next is back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va.

  6. 6. back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va comes up about 261 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa Emo.

  7. 7. back through Villa Emo

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Villa Emo write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    about 307 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa Emo. Next is back through Villa Foscari.

  8. 8. back through Villa Foscari

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Villa Foscari write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    back through Villa Foscari, late in the day. Next is Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles.

  9. 9. Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    The route ends here after 393 km.

Leg by leg

Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles to Villa Foscari

Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles → Villa Foscari is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Villa Foscari to Villa Emo

Villa Foscari → Villa Emo is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Villa Emo to Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va

Villa Emo → Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va to Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti

Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va → Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti to back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va

Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti → back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va to back through Villa Emo

back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va → back through Villa Emo is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Villa Emo to back through Villa Foscari

back through Villa Emo → back through Villa Foscari is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Villa Foscari to Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

back through Villa Foscari → Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

More motorcycle rides nearby