San Sivino and Villa Pisani Ferri

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. San Sivino

   On the western shore of Lake Garda, between Manerba and Moniga, the little bay of San Sivino hides something very old under its shallows. People lived here in the Bronze Age in villages built on wooden piles at the water's edge, and the remains of their posts, tools and pottery survive in the mud of the lake. The site is one of the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps that UNESCO listed in 2011, a series of more than a hundred sites spread across six countries. There is nothing to see above the water, but knowing that the shore was settled thousands of years ago adds a quiet depth to an afternoon by the lake.

   Read the complete San Sivino write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   San Sivino is where the day begins. Next is Mantua and Sabbioneta.

2. 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 79 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Pisani Ferri.

3. 3. 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

   about 160 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Pisani Ferri. Next is back through Mantua and Sabbioneta.

4. 4. 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 San Sivino.

5. 5. San Sivino

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete San Sivino write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at San Sivino. That is the ride.