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.
444 km from Poggio A Caiano to Poggio A Caiano, about 8 h 14 of riding. On the way it passes Villa de Il Trebbio, Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, Baraccano and Cathedral. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 51 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
52 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it. Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
The Medici liked to hunt, and Ferdinando I wanted somewhere to do it. In the late sixteenth century the grand duke commissioned the architect Bernardo Buontalenti to build him a hunting lodge on the hill of Artimino, west of Florence, and the result was a large, plain and strangely beautiful villa with a loggia, a terrace and a forest of chimneys. It is nicknamed the villa of the hundred chimneys, though there are fewer than that, and the stacks along the roofline give the building a rhythm that you can recognise from a long way off. It is one of the Medici villas and gardens that UNESCO listed in 2013 for the way they shaped the Italian idea of a country house.
Read the complete Villa de Artimino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de Artimino is where the day begins. Next is Villa de Il Trebbio.
The Medici came from the Mugello, and Il Trebbio is one of the places where you can see it. The family's rise to Florentine power in the fifteenth century began in these hills north of the city, among farms and woods where they held land long before they held banks and palaces. Il Trebbio is a fortified villa near San Piero a Sieve, redesigned for Cosimo the Elder by the architect Michelozzo, and its crenellated walls, tower and gardens mark it as a country retreat that is also, quietly, a statement of status. It is one of the Medici villas listed by UNESCO in 2013.
Read the complete Villa de Il Trebbio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de Il Trebbio comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 47 km on.
The Santerno valley climbs south from Imola into the Apennines toward Tuscany, and about fifteen kilometres up, the river cuts through a ridge of shining grey-white rock. This is the western end of the Vena del Gesso Romagnola, the gypsum vein that runs across this part of Romagna, and Monte Penzola rises above the village of Borgo Tossignano, with Fontanelice and Casalfiumanese nearby.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 115 km into the recorded legs you reach Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola. Next is Baraccano.
Baraccano is not a village, it is a corner of Bologna: a gate in the old thirteenth-century walls where the Via Santo Stefano runs out of the centre. The name comes from the barbican that once defended it. Next to the gate stands the small sanctuary of the Madonna del Baraccano, a Renaissance church whose fresco of the Virgin drew pilgrims after a reported miracle, and beside it a lovely little courtyard, a place most visitors walk straight past on the way to the Two Towers.
Read the complete Baraccano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Baraccano, about halfway. Next is Cathedral.
Modena's cathedral is one of the masterpieces of Romanesque architecture in Europe, and the inscription on its facade still names its makers with pride: the architect Lanfranco and the sculptor Wiligelmo. Work began in 1099 to house the relics of Saint Geminianus, the city's patron, and the result is a building of pale stone, with arcaded galleries, lions supporting the columns of the portal, and carved panels telling the story of Genesis with an expressive power that still surprises. The Ghirlandina, the cathedral's bell tower, leans slightly and rises high above the rooftops, and together with the Piazza Grande they form a UNESCO site.
Read the complete Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cathedral sits at 185 km, about halfway. Next is back through Baraccano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Baraccano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Baraccano comes up about 272 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 47 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 328 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola. Next is back through Villa de Il Trebbio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Il Trebbio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa de Il Trebbio, late in the day. Next is Villa de Artimino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Artimino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 444 km.
Villa de Artimino → Villa de Il Trebbio is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Il Trebbio → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola → Baraccano is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Baraccano → Cathedral is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cathedral → back through Baraccano is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Baraccano → back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola → back through Villa de Il Trebbio is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Il Trebbio → Villa de Artimino is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.