Università e Accademia and Historic Centre of San Gimignano starting at Bologna

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Università e Accademia

   Walk into the courtyard of the Archiginnasio in Bologna and you walk into a gallery of coats of arms. Thousands of them cover the walls and ceilings, painted and carved by students over the centuries, each one a small act of vanity from a young man far from home. This was the main seat of the University of Bologna, which claims to be the oldest university in the world, founded in 1088. Students from all over Europe gathered here to study law, and the city got rich and proud on them. Dante, Petrarch and Copernicus are among the names said to have passed through, and the university's first women professors arrived here long before most of Europe allowed such a thing.

   Read the complete Università e Accademia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Università e Accademia is where the day begins. Next is Villa de Cafaggiolo.

2. 2. Villa de Cafaggiolo

   In the green bowl of the Mugello, north of Florence, the Medici family kept a house long before they ruled the city. Cafaggiolo was an old family property, and around the middle of the fifteenth century Cosimo the Elder had the architect Michelozzo transform it into a fortified country villa, with battlements, a tower and a moat, a cross between a castle and a farmhouse. Lorenzo the Magnificent spent time here as a boy, and the villa became a favourite retreat for hunting and escaping the plague in the city. It is one of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany listed by UNESCO, and visits depend on current restoration and opening arrangements, so check before you arrive.

   Read the complete Villa de Cafaggiolo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villa de Cafaggiolo comes up about 89 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of San Gimignano.

3. 3. Historic Centre of San Gimignano

   Seen from the surrounding countryside, San Gimignano looks like a medieval Manhattan: a cluster of stone towers rising from a hilltop above vineyards and olive groves in the Val d'Elsa. In its heyday, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the town had dozens of them, built by rival families as symbols of power and wealth. Fourteen survive, enough to make it one of the most recognisable towns in Italy and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1990.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of San Gimignano write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 177 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of San Gimignano. Next is back through Villa de Cafaggiolo.

4. 4. back through Villa de Cafaggiolo

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa de Cafaggiolo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Villa de Cafaggiolo, late in the day. Next is Università e Accademia.

5. 5. Università e Accademia

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Università e Accademia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Università e Accademia. That is the ride.