Villa de Cafaggiolo and Historic Centre of San Gimignano

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Villa de Cafaggiolo

   In the green bowl of the Mugello, north of Florence, the Medici family kept a house long before they ruled the city. Cafaggiolo was an old family property, and around the middle of the fifteenth century Cosimo the Elder had the architect Michelozzo transform it into a fortified country villa, with battlements, a tower and a moat, a cross between a castle and a farmhouse. Lorenzo the Magnificent spent time here as a boy, and the villa became a favourite retreat for hunting and escaping the plague in the city. It is one of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany listed by UNESCO, and visits depend on current restoration and opening arrangements, so check before you arrive.

   Read the complete Villa de Cafaggiolo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villa de Cafaggiolo is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centre of Florence.

2. 2. Historic Centre of Florence

   Florence is the kind of city where the problem is not finding something to look at but deciding when to stop. The historic centre sits on a bend of the Arno, a compact grid of Roman origin with the Duomo at its middle, Brunelleschi's dome rising over the roofs, the Palazzo Vecchio at the civic heart and the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge the retreating Germans spared in 1944. The Medici bankers who ran the place for much of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries paid for most of what you are about to see, and they were rather good at it.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of Florence write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Historic Centre of Florence comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa La Magia.

3. 3. Villa La Magia

   The Medici loved the countryside, especially when it came with hunting grounds, and Villa La Magia at Quarrata was one of their country retreats at the foot of the Montalbano hills, a few kilometres south of Pistoia. Francesco I de' Medici bought it in the sixteenth century to use as a hunting lodge, and it belongs to the World Heritage inscription for the Medici villas and gardens of Tuscany. The villa is a solid rectangular building around a courtyard, more farmhouse than palace, with a park that has become home to contemporary art installations, a rather unexpected touch for a Renaissance hunting lodge.

   Read the complete Villa La Magia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa La Magia. Next is Historic Centre of San Gimignano.

4. 4. Historic Centre of San Gimignano

   Seen from the surrounding countryside, San Gimignano looks like a medieval Manhattan: a cluster of stone towers rising from a hilltop above vineyards and olive groves in the Val d'Elsa. In its heyday, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the town had dozens of them, built by rival families as symbols of power and wealth. Fourteen survive, enough to make it one of the most recognisable towns in Italy and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1990.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of San Gimignano write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Historic Centre of San Gimignano, about halfway. Next is back through Villa La Magia.

5. 5. back through Villa La Magia

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa La Magia write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Villa La Magia sits at 160 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Florence.

6. 6. back through Historic Centre of Florence

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of Florence write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Historic Centre of Florence comes up about 266 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de Cafaggiolo.

7. 7. Villa de Cafaggiolo

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Villa de Cafaggiolo write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Villa de Cafaggiolo closes the day.