Why this ride
From Cerea it runs 282 km to Cerea; allow about 4 h 58 of riding. The stops in between: Villa Pojana, Villa Chiericati, Villa Pisani Ferri and City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Tombola and City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas o
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 282 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 58
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Tombola
In the flat, fertile plain south of Verona, near the town of Cerea, a low rise in the fields called Tombola hides the remains of a Bronze Age settlement. The site is listed among the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it belongs to a group of wetland villages that once stood among the marshes of the Valli Grandi Veronesi, a large area of wetland that was drained and reclaimed over the centuries.
Read the complete Tombola write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tombola is where the day begins. Next is Villa Pojana.
2. Villa Pojana
Andrea Palladio could make a farmhouse look like a temple, and at Villa Pojana he did it with remarkable restraint. Built in the mid-sixteenth century for Bonifacio Pojana, a nobleman with military ambitions, the villa stands in the village of Poiana Maggiore in the flat country south of Vicenza. Its facade is almost bare: a great arched entrance framed by a Serlian motif with round windows, a pediment above, smooth plaster walls. The interior has frescoes by artists of the time. Like other Palladian villas of the Veneto, it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of the city of Vicenza and the villas around it.
Read the complete Villa Pojana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Pojana comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Chiericati.
3. Villa Chiericati
Villa Chiericati stands in the flat countryside east of Vicenza, at Vancimuglio near Grumolo delle Abbadesse, a cube of pale plaster with a deep, columned portico that looks as if a Roman temple has been grafted onto a farmhouse. That is precisely what Palladio intended. Designed in the 1550s for Giovanni Chiericati, it is often cited as one of the first villas in which he gave the main façade a full temple front, an idea he would repeat, refine and make famous, and which architects copied for centuries afterwards, from English country houses to the American South. Like the other Palladian villas of the Veneto, it is part of the UNESCO site that includes the city of Vicenza.
Read the complete Villa Chiericati write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Chiericati. 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 141 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 174 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa Chiericati.
7. back through Villa Chiericati
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Chiericati write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 210 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa Chiericati. Next is back through Villa Pojana.
8. back through Villa Pojana
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pojana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Pojana, late in the day. Next is Tombola.
9. Tombola
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tombola 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 282 km.
Leg by leg
Tombola to Villa Pojana
Tombola → Villa Pojana is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pojana to Villa Chiericati
Villa Pojana → Villa Chiericati is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Chiericati to Villa Pisani Ferri
Villa Chiericati → Villa Pisani Ferri is 36 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 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pisani Ferri to back through Villa Chiericati
back through Villa Pisani Ferri → back through Villa Chiericati is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Chiericati to back through Villa Pojana
back through Villa Chiericati → back through Villa Pojana is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pojana to Tombola
back through Villa Pojana → Tombola is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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