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.
From Nova Levante it runs 447 km to Nova Levante; allow about 9 h 26 of riding. The stops in between: Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti, Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va, Villa Emo and Villa Thiene. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Scenic road chapters
Great Dolomites Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 72 km this is Great Dolomites Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
Length
72 km
Named road
Great Dolomites Road
Pass
Passo Rolle
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Sciliar-Catinaccio
Watch the Rosengarten at sunset from the valley of Bolzano and you will understand the legend. As the sun goes down, the pale dolomite peaks glow pink, then red, then purple, a phenomenon the Ladin people call enrosadira. According to the old story, King Laurin of the dwarves had a magnificent rose garden here, and when he was captured by enemies who had spotted his roses, he cursed the garden so that no one would see it by day or by night. He forgot the twilight, and so, for a few minutes each evening, the roses bloom again on the rocks. Together with the Sciliar, or Schlern, the great flat-topped massif to the north, the Catinaccio forms one of the components of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage site, listed in 2009.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sciliar-Catinaccio is where the day begins. Next is Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti.
2. Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti
The Val di San Lucano is a deep, shadowed gash in the southern Dolomites, and the point here lies near Rivamonte and Voltago, in the Agordino, the upper valley of the Cordevole river. The big, pale walls on either side belong to the Pale di San Martino group, one of the nine sets of mountains included in the Dolomites World Heritage listing of 2009, and their sheer rock faces rise more than a thousand metres above the narrow valley floor.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va.
3. Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va
These are not soft, rolling wine hills. Between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, the foothills of the Pre-Alps rise in steep hogback ridges, sharp crests of rock running east to west, with vines clinging to slopes so steep that much of the work is still done by hand. Grass-covered terraces called ciglioni hold the soil in place, and the result is a patchwork of vines, woods and small villages that UNESCO listed in 2019.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va. Next is Villa Emo.
4. Villa Emo
Andrea Palladio built villas for the Venetian nobility as working farms, not just as country houses, and Villa Emo at Fanzolo is perhaps the purest example of that idea. Completed around 1560 for the Emo family, it stands at the centre of a flat, fertile estate, with a long, symmetrical central block flanked by two arcaded wings, the barchesse, which housed the farm buildings, storage and dovecotes. The ramp leading up to the front door was used for threshing grain. Inside, the rooms are decorated with frescoes by Giovanni Battista Zelotti, mythological and allegorical scenes that bring colour and life to the classical architecture. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Emo, about halfway. Next is Villa Thiene.
5. Villa Thiene
Quinto Vicentino is a quiet farming town on the flat plain just north-east of Vicenza, and its town hall happens to be a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Thiene was commissioned in the sixteenth century by the brothers Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene, members of one of the most powerful families in Vicenza, and Palladio drew up a grand design for it with courtyards and wings that would have spread across the fields. Only part of that plan was ever built. What stands today is a solid, rather austere block, and the council offices are inside it, which gives the place a pleasingly everyday feeling.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 308 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va. Next is back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti.
8. back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 447 km.
Leg by leg
Sciliar-Catinaccio to Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti
Sciliar-Catinaccio → Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti to Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va
Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti → Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va to Villa Emo
Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va → Villa Emo is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Emo to Villa Thiene
Villa Emo → Villa Thiene is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Thiene to back through Villa Emo
Villa Thiene → back through Villa Emo is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Emo to back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va
back through Villa Emo → back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va to back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti
back through Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va → back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti to Sciliar-Catinaccio
back through Pale di San Martino San Lucano - Dolomiti → Sciliar-Catinaccio is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.