CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
301 km from Pratovecchio to Pratovecchio, about 5 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of Villa de la Petraia, Historic Centre of Siena and back through Villa de la Petraia. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 76 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Sasso Fratino is a forest you are not allowed to enter, and that is precisely the point. High on the Romagna side of the Apennine ridge, in the national park of the Casentino forests, it was declared Italy's first integral nature reserve in 1959, and since then nature has been left almost entirely to itself. Ancient beech woods cling to steep slopes, with silver fir, maple and ash mixed in, and dead trees are left to rot where they fall, feeding fungi, beetles and birds. In 2017 it became part of the transnational World Heritage listing of ancient beech forests of Europe.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sasso Fratino is where the day begins. Next is Villa de la Petraia.
La Petraia stands on the slope above Castello, on the north-western edge of Florence, and the first thing you notice is its tower, a leftover from the medieval fortress that stood here before the Medici made it a villa. Ferdinando de' Medici bought it in the 1560s and had Buontalenti reshape it, keeping the tower and building around it, so that the house looks like a small castle that learned manners. The garden below is laid out in terraces, with a fountain topped by a Venus wringing out her hair, a famous work by Giambologna.
Read the complete Villa de la Petraia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de la Petraia comes up 69 km in. Next is Historic Centre of Siena.
Siena sits on three ridges in the heart of Tuscany, a red-brick medieval city that has hardly changed its shape in seven hundred years. At its centre is the Piazza del Campo, a sloping, shell-shaped square paved in brick and divided into nine sections, a reminder of the Council of Nine that governed the city in its golden age. The Palazzo Pubblico, with the slender Torre del Mangia, stands at the bottom of the square, and inside are frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti showing the effects of good and bad government, painted in the fourteenth century.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Siena write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
138 km in you reach Historic Centre of Siena. Next is back through Villa de la Petraia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de la Petraia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa de la Petraia, late in the day. Next is Sasso Fratino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Sasso Fratino. That is the ride.
Sasso Fratino → Villa de la Petraia is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de la Petraia → Historic Centre of Siena is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centre of Siena → back through Villa de la Petraia is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Villa de la Petraia → Sasso Fratino is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.