Why this ride
368 km from Brescia to Brescia, about 6 h 35 of riding. The stops in between: San Sivino, Villa Serego, Villa Pisani Ferri and City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The monumental area with the monastic comp and City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 368 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 35
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 38 km
- Named road
- Lake Garda Western Shore and Strada della Forra
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The monumental area with the monastic comp
The centre of Brescia holds two thousand years of layered history within a few hundred metres. Along the old Roman main street, the Capitolium temple raised under Vespasian still lifts its columns above the forum, with a Roman theatre beside it, and a short walk away the monastery of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia spreads its cloisters and churches over the site of Roman houses. The monastery was founded in the eighth century by Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, and his wife Ansa; their daughter Ermengarda, rejected by Charlemagne, is said to have ended her days here.
Read the complete The monumental area with the monastic comp write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The monumental area with the monastic comp is where the day begins. Next is San Sivino.
2. 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 comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Serego.
3. Villa Serego
Andrea Palladio built many villas around the Veneto, but the one at Santa Sofia di Pedemonte, in the Valpolicella just north-west of Verona, is the oddball of the family. Commissioned by Marcantonio Serego in the mid-sixteenth century and never finished, it has none of the smooth classical calm of the Rotonda. Instead its courtyard is lined with giant Ionic columns built up from rough, rusticated blocks of local stone, as if the building were half turning back into the hillside. Only part of the planned design was completed, and the effect is wonderfully strange.
Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Serego. 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 City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o.
5. City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o
Andrea Palladio was a stonemason from Padua who became the most copied architect in history, and Vicenza is where he did it. Walk the main street, Corso Palladio, and you are moving through his workshop: palace after palace designed for the local nobility in the sixteenth century, with columns, pediments and proportions that ended up on English country houses, American plantation homes and Washington government buildings. The city and the villas scattered across the surrounding countryside were listed together by UNESCO for exactly that reason.
Read the complete City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o sits at 160 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 219 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa Serego.
7. back through Villa Serego
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 270 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa Serego. Next is back through San Sivino.
8. back through 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 through San Sivino, late in the day. Next is The monumental area with the monastic comp.
9. The monumental area with the monastic comp
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The monumental area with the monastic comp 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 368 km.
Leg by leg
The monumental area with the monastic comp to San Sivino
The monumental area with the monastic comp → San Sivino is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Sivino to Villa Serego
San Sivino → Villa Serego is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Serego to Villa Pisani Ferri
Villa Serego → Villa Pisani Ferri is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pisani Ferri to City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o
Villa Pisani Ferri → City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o to back through Villa Pisani Ferri
City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o → back through Villa Pisani Ferri is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pisani Ferri to back through Villa Serego
back through Villa Pisani Ferri → back through Villa Serego is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Serego to back through San Sivino
back through Villa Serego → back through San Sivino is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through San Sivino to The monumental area with the monastic comp
back through San Sivino → The monumental area with the monastic comp is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- City of Verona and Belvedere · 175 km
- Lucone and Villa Pisani Ferri · 230 km
- City of Verona and Lavagnone · 92 km