Why this ride
A 187 km round trip from Padova - roughly 3 h 41 in the saddle. It goes by way of Laghetto della Costa, Villa Saraceno, Villa Pisani Ferri and Villa Pojana.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles and Villa Pojana
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 187 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 41
- 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 Saraceno.
3. Villa Saraceno
In the countryside south of the Berici Hills, near the village of Agugliaro, Villa Saraceno is one of the simplest and most elegant of Andrea Palladio's villas, built in the mid-sixteenth century for Biagio Saraceno, a Vicentine nobleman. It is a compact building with a classical portico of arches and a triangular pediment, set among farmland, and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Read the complete Villa Saraceno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Saraceno. Next is Villa Pisani Ferri.
4. Villa Pisani Ferri
Andrea Palladio was still a young architect, not long out of his training as a stonemason, when the Pisani brothers, members of a powerful Venetian family, asked him to design a country house at Bagnolo, near Lonigo, in the late 1530s or early 1540s. The result, now known as Villa Pisani Ferri, is one of his early villas, a solid, symmetrical house with a grand central hall and a facade facing the river, part of the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Visits depend on the owners' arrangements, so check ahead if you hope to go inside.
Read the complete Villa Pisani Ferri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Pisani Ferri, about halfway. Next is Villa Pojana.
5. 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
Villa Pojana sits at 85 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Pisani Ferri.
6. back through Villa Pisani Ferri
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pisani Ferri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Pisani Ferri comes up about 113 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa Saraceno.
7. back through Villa Saraceno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Saraceno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa Saraceno. Next is back through Laghetto della Costa.
8. 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, late in the day. Next is Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles.
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 187 km.
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 Saraceno
Laghetto della Costa → Villa Saraceno is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Saraceno to Villa Pisani Ferri
Villa Saraceno → Villa Pisani Ferri is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pisani Ferri to Villa Pojana
Villa Pisani Ferri → Villa Pojana is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pojana to back through Villa Pisani Ferri
Villa Pojana → back through Villa Pisani Ferri is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pisani Ferri to back through Villa Saraceno
back through Villa Pisani Ferri → back through Villa Saraceno is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Saraceno to back through Laghetto della Costa
back through Villa Saraceno → back through Laghetto della Costa is 23 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 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.