Why this ride
A 344 km round trip from Brescia - roughly 6 h 31 in the saddle. The stops in between: San Sivino, Villa Serego, Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli and Mantua and Sabbioneta. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The monumental area with the monastic comp and Mantua and Sabbioneta
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 344 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 31
- 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 Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
4. 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
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli, about halfway. Next is Mantua and Sabbioneta.
5. 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 sits at 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
6. 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
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli comes up about 203 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 246 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 344 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 Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
Villa Serego → Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli to Mantua and Sabbioneta
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → Mantua and Sabbioneta is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mantua and Sabbioneta to back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
Mantua and Sabbioneta → 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 Villa Serego
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → back through Villa Serego is 43 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.