Why this ride
400 km from Caldogno-Rettorgole-Cresole to Caldogno-Rettorgole-Cresole, about 6 h 00 of riding. The stops in between: Villa Pisani Ferri, Laghetto della Costa, Villa Badoer and MamBo. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Caldogno and MamBo
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 400 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 00
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 77 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 77 km
- Named road
- Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Villa Caldogno
Villa Caldogno is one of the quieter Palladian villas, standing in a park on the edge of the town of the same name, a few kilometres north of Vicenza. Andrea Palladio designed it in the mid-sixteenth century for the Caldogno family, and it shows his early style: a compact, symmetrical block with a triple-arched loggia in the centre, a pediment above, and no unnecessary decoration. Inside, the main hall and rooms are covered with frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and Giovanni Battista Zelotti, depicting scenes of country life, banquets, games and love, painted with charm and humour. Like the other villas of the Veneto, it belongs to the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas.
Read the complete Villa Caldogno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Caldogno is where the day begins. Next is Villa Pisani Ferri.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Pisani Ferri comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Laghetto della Costa.
3. Laghetto della Costa
The Euganean Hills rise abruptly from the flat plain south-west of Padua, a cluster of volcanic cones covered in vineyards, chestnut woods and olive groves. Arquà Petrarca, a medieval village on the southern slopes, is where the poet Petrarch spent his last years and died in 1374; his house can still be visited. Close by, in a small hollow between the hills, lies the Laghetto della Costa, a tiny lake that hides a big secret.
Read the complete Laghetto della Costa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Laghetto della Costa. Next is Villa Badoer.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is MamBo.
5. MamBo
Not every checkpoint on a ride needs to be old. MamBo, the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, opened in 2007 in a former municipal bakery on the northern edge of the old centre, and the building says a lot about how Bologna thinks. The city turned the factory where it once baked bread for its people into a home for twentieth-century and contemporary art, with a strong collection of Giorgio Morandi, the painter who spent his whole life in this town painting bottles and jugs on a table, and whose little house lies not far away.
Read the complete MamBo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
MamBo sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Badoer.
6. back through 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 through Villa Badoer comes up about 276 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Laghetto della Costa.
7. back through Laghetto della Costa
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Laghetto della Costa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 317 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Laghetto della Costa. Next is back through Villa Pisani Ferri.
8. back through Villa Pisani Ferri
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pisani Ferri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Pisani Ferri, late in the day. Next is Villa Caldogno.
9. Villa Caldogno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Caldogno 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 400 km.
Leg by leg
Villa Caldogno to Villa Pisani Ferri
Villa Caldogno → Villa Pisani Ferri is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pisani Ferri to Laghetto della Costa
Villa Pisani Ferri → Laghetto della Costa is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Laghetto della Costa to Villa Badoer
Laghetto della Costa → Villa Badoer is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Badoer to MamBo
Villa Badoer → MamBo is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
MamBo to back through Villa Badoer
MamBo → back through Villa Badoer is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Villa Badoer to back through Laghetto della Costa
back through Villa Badoer → back through Laghetto della Costa is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Laghetto della Costa to back through Villa Pisani Ferri
back through Laghetto della Costa → back through Villa Pisani Ferri is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pisani Ferri to Villa Caldogno
back through Villa Pisani Ferri → Villa Caldogno is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.