Why this ride
A 285 km round trip from Venice - roughly 5 h 48 in the saddle. On the way it passes Villa Cornaro, Oratory of St.Michael, Villa Saraceno and Tombola. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Venice and its Lagoon and Tombola
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 285 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 48
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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
Venice and its Lagoon → Villa Cornaro
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 44 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 44 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Venice and its Lagoon
Venice is the only great city in Europe where your motorcycle is entirely useless. The road ends at Piazzale Roma, at the end of a long bridge across the lagoon, and from there on, everything happens on foot or by boat. The city and its lagoon are listed by UNESCO as a whole, a recognition that the islands, the canals, the salt marshes and the fishing villages form a single living system, shaped by over a thousand years of human effort to keep the sea out and the city afloat.
Read the complete Venice and its Lagoon write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Venice and its Lagoon is where the day begins. Next is Villa Cornaro.
2. Villa Cornaro
Piombino Dese is a quiet village on the flat plain between Padua and Treviso, the kind of place you pass through on the way to somewhere else. Stop on the main road, though, and look at the house set back behind its lawn. Villa Cornaro was designed by Andrea Palladio in the early 1550s for Giorgio Cornaro, a member of one of the grandest Venetian families, and its central portico rises in two storeys of columns, one loggia stacked on another like a temple front on a temple front. On the garden side the same double loggia faces a long lawn. It is one of the most copied houses in architectural history, and echoes of it can be seen in country houses across England and in mansions of the American South. The villa is part of the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and it opens to visitors on certain days in the warmer months.
Read the complete Villa Cornaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Cornaro comes up 39 km in. Next is Oratory of St.Michael, 39 km on.
3. Oratory of St.Michael
In the old centre of Padua, near the medieval tower that later became an astronomical observatory, a small oratory hides one of the city's quieter treasures. The Oratory of St Michael contains frescoes painted by Jacopo da Verona at the end of the fourteenth century, scenes from the life of the Virgin populated with recognisable citizens of Padua dressed in the fashions of the day. It is one of eight sites inscribed in 2021 as Padua's fourteenth-century fresco cycles, the group that also includes Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel.
Read the complete Oratory of St.Michael write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
78 km in you reach Oratory of St.Michael. Next is Villa Saraceno.
4. Villa Saraceno
In the countryside south of the Berici Hills, near the village of Agugliaro, Villa Saraceno is one of the simplest and most elegant of Andrea Palladio's villas, built in the mid-sixteenth century for Biagio Saraceno, a Vicentine nobleman. It is a compact building with a classical portico of arches and a triangular pediment, set among farmland, and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Read the complete Villa Saraceno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Saraceno, about halfway. Next is Tombola.
5. 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 sits at 155 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Saraceno.
6. back through Villa Saraceno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Saraceno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Saraceno comes up 194 km in. Next is back through Oratory of St.Michael, 39 km on.
7. back through Oratory of St.Michael
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oratory of St.Michael write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
233 km in you reach back through Oratory of St.Michael. Next is back through Villa Cornaro.
8. back through Villa Cornaro
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Cornaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Cornaro, late in the day. Next is Venice and its Lagoon.
9. Venice and its Lagoon
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Venice and its Lagoon 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 285 km.
Leg by leg
Venice and its Lagoon to Villa Cornaro
Venice and its Lagoon → Villa Cornaro is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Cornaro to Oratory of St.Michael
Villa Cornaro → Oratory of St.Michael is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oratory of St.Michael to Villa Saraceno
Oratory of St.Michael → Villa Saraceno is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Saraceno to Tombola
Villa Saraceno → Tombola is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tombola to back through Villa Saraceno
Tombola → back through Villa Saraceno is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Saraceno to back through Oratory of St.Michael
back through Villa Saraceno → back through Oratory of St.Michael is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oratory of St.Michael to back through Villa Cornaro
back through Oratory of St.Michael → back through Villa Cornaro is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Cornaro to Venice and its Lagoon
back through Villa Cornaro → Venice and its Lagoon is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.