Why this ride
A 223 km round trip from Fratta Polesine - roughly 3 h 32 in the saddle. The stops in between: Botanical Garden, Villa Barbaro and back through Botanical Garden.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Badoer and Villa Barbaro
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 223 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 32
- 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. Villa Badoer
Fratta Polesine is a quiet village in the Polesine, the flat, fertile land between the Adige and the Po in the south of the Veneto, and its pride is a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Badoer, built in the 1550s for Francesco Badoer, a Venetian nobleman, stands on a raised platform above the surrounding fields, with a temple-front portico, curved colonnades sweeping out on either side to farm buildings, and a grand staircase. It was the first of Palladio's villas to use the curved barchesse, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Inside, the walls carry frescoes, and the villa houses a museum about the Polesine and its history.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Badoer is where the day begins. Next is Botanical Garden.
2. Botanical Garden
The Orto Botanico of Padua was founded in 1545 by the university, which needed a place to grow medicinal plants for the study of medicine, and it is the oldest university botanical garden in the world still in its original location. Its layout has hardly changed in nearly five centuries: a circular wall enclosing a square divided into quarters, with geometric flowerbeds, fountains and gates, a symbolic representation of the world. One of its most famous inhabitants is a palm tree planted in 1585, known as Goethe's palm because the poet studied it during his Italian journey in 1786 and drew from it ideas about the metamorphosis of plants. The garden was listed by UNESCO in 1997, and a modern greenhouse, the Garden of Biodiversity, now sits beside the historic garden, showing plants from different climates around the world.
Read the complete Botanical Garden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Botanical Garden comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Barbaro.
3. Villa Barbaro
At the foot of the Asolo hills, near the village of Maser, a long, golden villa looks out over the plain with the mountains behind it. Villa Barbaro was designed by Andrea Palladio in the 1550s for the brothers Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro, cultivated Venetian patricians, and it is one of his most perfect works, combining a central house like a temple with long arcaded wings for farm buildings. Inside, the rooms are covered with frescoes by Paolo Veronese, among the finest of the Venetian Renaissance: painted landscapes, mythological figures and trompe l'oeil doors with servants peeping through, a game of illusion that still surprises visitors. Behind the villa, a nymphaeum with statues and a pool sits against the hillside, and nearby stands the Tempietto, a small round church also designed by Palladio. The villa is part of the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and it remains a working estate producing wine.
Read the complete Villa Barbaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 113 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Barbaro. Next is back through Botanical Garden.
4. back through Botanical Garden
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Botanical Garden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Botanical Garden, late in the day. Next is Villa Badoer.
5. Villa Badoer
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Villa Badoer. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Villa Badoer to Botanical Garden
Villa Badoer → Botanical Garden is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Botanical Garden to Villa Barbaro
Botanical Garden → Villa Barbaro is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Barbaro to back through Botanical Garden
Villa Barbaro → back through Botanical Garden is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Botanical Garden to Villa Badoer
back through Botanical Garden → Villa Badoer is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.