Why this ride
A 273 km round trip from Sabbioneta - roughly 5 h 29 in the saddle. The stops in between: Mantua and Sabbioneta, Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli, Mantoue and Bande - Corte Carpani. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Sabbioneta and Bande - Corte Carpani
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 273 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 29
- 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. Sabbioneta
Sabbioneta is a Renaissance experiment: a whole town built from scratch in the second half of the sixteenth century by Vespasiano Gonzaga, a soldier, scholar and minor prince of the great Mantuan family, who wanted a capital laid out according to the ideals of the age. He got it. Inside its star-shaped walls the streets run in a regular grid, and in a few hundred metres you pass a ducal palace, a long gallery built to show off his collection of ancient sculpture, a summer palace, and one of the earliest purpose-built theatres in Europe, the Teatro all'Antica, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Sabbioneta and Mantua were listed together by UNESCO in 2008 as two contrasting visions of the Renaissance city.
Read the complete Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sabbioneta is where the day begins. Next is Mantua and Sabbioneta.
2. Mantua and Sabbioneta
Approach Mantua from the north across the causeway and you see why it was so hard to conquer: the city rises from water on three sides, encircled by lakes formed from the river Mincio, its domes and towers reflected in the still surface. For nearly four centuries it belonged to the Gonzaga family, who turned a marshy town into one of the most brilliant courts of the Renaissance, and Mantua is listed by UNESCO together with Sabbioneta, the small ideal city that a branch of the same family built some thirty kilometres away.
Read the complete Mantua and Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mantua and Sabbioneta comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli. Next is Mantoue.
4. Mantoue
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mantoue, about halfway. Next is Bande - Corte Carpani.
5. Bande - Corte Carpani
Corte Carpani is the kind of place that the name tells you most about. A corte in this part of Lombardy is a farm courtyard, with a farmhouse, barns and outbuildings arranged around a square, and the old estates in the Mantuan hills often kept the names of the families who owned them for a few generations. It sits among the low moraine hills south of Lake Garda, near the villages of Solferino and Cavriana, in a country of vines, maize, cypress rows and brick farm towers.
Read the complete Bande - Corte Carpani write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bande - Corte Carpani sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mantoue.
6. back through Mantoue
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mantoue write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mantoue comes up about 172 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
7. back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 204 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli. Next is back through Mantua and Sabbioneta.
8. back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mantua and Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta, late in the day. Next is Sabbioneta.
9. Sabbioneta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sabbioneta 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 273 km.
Leg by leg
Sabbioneta to Mantua and Sabbioneta
Sabbioneta → Mantua and Sabbioneta is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mantua and Sabbioneta to Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
Mantua and Sabbioneta → Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli to Mantoue
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → Mantoue is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mantoue to Bande - Corte Carpani
Mantoue → Bande - Corte Carpani is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bande - Corte Carpani to back through Mantoue
Bande - Corte Carpani → back through Mantoue is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mantoue to back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
back through Mantoue → back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli to back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → back through Mantua and Sabbioneta is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta to Sabbioneta
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta → Sabbioneta is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.