Why this ride
165 km from Padova to Padova, about 3 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: Laghetto della Costa, Villa Pojana, Tombola and back through Villa Pojana. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles and Tombola
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 165 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 16
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
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 Laghetto della Costa.
2. Laghetto della Costa
The Euganean Hills rise abruptly from the flat plain south-west of Padua, a cluster of volcanic cones covered in vineyards, chestnut woods and olive groves. Arquà Petrarca, a medieval village on the southern slopes, is where the poet Petrarch spent his last years and died in 1374; his house can still be visited. Close by, in a small hollow between the hills, lies the Laghetto della Costa, a tiny lake that hides a big secret.
Read the complete Laghetto della Costa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Laghetto della Costa comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Pojana.
3. Villa Pojana
Andrea Palladio could make a farmhouse look like a temple, and at Villa Pojana he did it with remarkable restraint. Built in the mid-sixteenth century for Bonifacio Pojana, a nobleman with military ambitions, the villa stands in the village of Poiana Maggiore in the flat country south of Vicenza. Its facade is almost bare: a great arched entrance framed by a Serlian motif with round windows, a pediment above, smooth plaster walls. The interior has frescoes by artists of the time. Like other Palladian villas of the Veneto, it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of the city of Vicenza and the villas around it.
Read the complete Villa Pojana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Pojana. Next is Tombola.
4. Tombola
In the flat, fertile plain south of Verona, near the town of Cerea, a low rise in the fields called Tombola hides the remains of a Bronze Age settlement. The site is listed among the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it belongs to a group of wetland villages that once stood among the marshes of the Valli Grandi Veronesi, a large area of wetland that was drained and reclaimed over the centuries.
Read the complete Tombola write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tombola, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Pojana.
5. back through Villa Pojana
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pojana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Pojana sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Laghetto della Costa.
6. back through Laghetto della Costa
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Laghetto della Costa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Laghetto della Costa comes up about 138 km into the recorded legs. Next is Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles.
7. 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
Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles closes the day.
Leg by leg
Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles to Laghetto della Costa
Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles → Laghetto della Costa is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Laghetto della Costa to Villa Pojana
Laghetto della Costa → Villa Pojana is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pojana to Tombola
Villa Pojana → Tombola is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tombola to back through Villa Pojana
Tombola → back through Villa Pojana is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pojana to back through Laghetto della Costa
back through Villa Pojana → back through Laghetto della Costa is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Laghetto della Costa to Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles
back through Laghetto della Costa → Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.