CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
172 km from Bassano del Grappa to Bassano del Grappa, about 2 h 54 of riding. It goes by way of Villa Forni Cerato, Villa Chiericati, Villa Trissino and back through Villa Chiericati. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Bassano del Grappa sits where the river Brenta leaves the mountains and spreads onto the Venetian plain, and its symbol is a covered wooden bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, designed by Palladio in the sixteenth century and rebuilt several times since after floods and wars. On the right bank of the river, just outside the town, stands Villa Angarano, a country house whose two long colonnaded wings were designed by Palladio, while the central residence was built later, in a different style, by the Venetian architect Baldassare Longhena. The villa is still a working wine estate and belongs to the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Read the complete Villa Angarano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Angarano is where the day begins. Next is Villa Forni Cerato.
Not every Palladian villa is a palace. Villa Forni Cerato, in Montecchio Precalcino north of Vicenza, is a small, modest building, a cube with a simple loggia and pediment, built in the mid-sixteenth century for Girolamo Forni, a timber merchant and amateur painter. Its attribution to Palladio has been debated, but it is included in the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and its compact harmony shows how Palladio's ideas worked even at a small scale. It is privately owned and not always open, so check before planning a visit.
Read the complete Villa Forni Cerato write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Forni Cerato comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Chiericati. Next is Villa Trissino.
A Palladio villa that was never finished can be more interesting than one that was. At Meledo, a hamlet in the municipality of Sarego south of Vicenza, Andrea Palladio drew up grand plans for the Trissino brothers in the mid-sixteenth century: a central block topped by a dome, with long curved colonnades stretching out like arms toward the river. Only a fragment was built, and what you see today is a modest farm building and some remains incorporated into later structures. Yet the design, published in Palladio's Four Books of Architecture, became one of his most influential, and the site is part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Read the complete Villa Trissino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Trissino, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Chiericati.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Chiericati write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa Chiericati sits at 102 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Forni Cerato.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Forni Cerato write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa Forni Cerato comes up about 144 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Angarano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Angarano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Angarano closes the day.
Villa Angarano → Villa Forni Cerato is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Forni Cerato → Villa Chiericati is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Chiericati → Villa Trissino is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Trissino → back through Villa Chiericati is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Chiericati → back through Villa Forni Cerato is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Forni Cerato → Villa Angarano is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.