Why this ride
A 191 km round trip from Brescia - roughly 4 h 24 in the saddle. The stops in between: Lucone, Lavagnone, Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda and San Sivino.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The monumental area with the monastic comp and San Sivino
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 191 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 24
- 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 32 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
- 32 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 Lucone.
2. Lucone
Lucone is a small basin in the green hills of the Valtènesi, just west of Lake Garda, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. Once there was a little lake here, and during the Bronze Age people built villages of wooden houses raised on piles along its shore. The lake later turned to marsh and peat, which preserved the timbers, pottery and organic remains in waterlogged conditions for thousands of years. What you see today is a gentle, wooded hollow among vineyards and fields, and you need some imagination; the finds are in the archaeological museum in nearby Gavardo.
Read the complete Lucone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lucone comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lavagnone.
3. Lavagnone
Lavagnone does not look like much, and that is rather the point. South of Lake Garda, behind Desenzano, the landscape is a rumple of low hills left by the glacier that once filled the lake basin, and in a hollow among them lies a small peat basin that was once a shallow lake. Around four thousand years ago, in the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber piles at its edge, and when the water level fell and the peat built up, the wood was preserved in the mud like a time capsule.
Read the complete Lavagnone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Lavagnone. Next is Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda.
4. Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Water surrounds Peschiera on every side, and that was the whole idea. The town sits where the River Mincio flows out of the southern end of Lake Garda, and in the sixteenth century the Republic of Venice turned it into a star-shaped fortress with massive pentagonal walls, bastions and moats fed by the lake and the river. Later the Austrians made it one of the four corners of the Quadrilatero, the defensive square of fortresses that guarded their hold on northern Italy in the nineteenth century. In 2017 Peschiera became part of the UNESCO listing of Venetian works of defence between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, alongside Bergamo, Palmanova and fortresses on the Adriatic.
Read the complete Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda, about halfway. Next is San Sivino.
5. 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 sits at 83 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda.
6. back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Lavagnone.
7. back through Lavagnone
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lavagnone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Lavagnone. Next is back through Lucone.
8. back through Lucone
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lucone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Lucone, 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 191 km.
Leg by leg
The monumental area with the monastic comp to Lucone
The monumental area with the monastic comp → Lucone is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lucone to Lavagnone
Lucone → Lavagnone is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lavagnone to Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Lavagnone → Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda to San Sivino
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda → San Sivino is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Sivino to back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
San Sivino → back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda to back through Lavagnone
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda → back through Lavagnone is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lavagnone to back through Lucone
back through Lavagnone → back through Lucone is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lucone to The monumental area with the monastic comp
back through Lucone → The monumental area with the monastic comp is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.