Why this ride
310 km from Fratta Polesine to Fratta Polesine, about 5 h 22 of riding. It goes by way of Diamantina, Villa Pisani, Villa Pisani Ferri and Villa Pojana.
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.
310 km from Fratta Polesine to Fratta Polesine, about 5 h 22 of riding. It goes by way of Diamantina, Villa Pisani, Villa Pisani Ferri and Villa Pojana.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Badoer is where the day begins. Next is Diamantina.
The Este dukes of Ferrara loved their countryside retreats, the delizie, and they scattered them across the flat land around the city like jewels on a cloth. The Diamantina, near Vigarano Pieve west of Ferrara, was one of them, an estate of farmland, woods and buildings named after the diamond, a symbol of the Este family. The delizie are part of the UNESCO listing of Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta, which recognises the city's planned urban layout and the way the Este shaped the surrounding landscape, draining marshes and creating farms and hunting grounds.
Read the complete Diamantina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Diamantina comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Pisani.
Montagnana is one of the best-preserved walled towns in Europe, with its entire ring of medieval brick walls, towers and gates still standing around the old centre, and just outside the eastern gate stands a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Pisani at Montagnana, built for Francesco Pisani in the 1550s, is a two-storey palace with a classical façade facing the road, part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Unlike most of Palladio's country villas, it sits right at the edge of town, more urban palazzo than farmhouse, and its elegant columns make a striking contrast with the rugged walls nearby.
Read the complete Villa Pisani write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Pisani. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Pisani Ferri, about halfway. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Pojana sits at 117 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Pisani Ferri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pisani Ferri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa Pisani Ferri comes up about 176 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa Pisani.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pisani write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 199 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa Pisani. Next is back through Diamantina.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Diamantina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Diamantina, late in the day. Next is Villa Badoer.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 310 km.
Villa Badoer → Diamantina is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Diamantina → Villa Pisani is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pisani → Villa Pisani Ferri is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pisani Ferri → Villa Pojana is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pojana → back through Villa Pisani Ferri is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pisani Ferri → back through Villa Pisani is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pisani → back through Diamantina is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Diamantina → Villa Badoer is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.