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.
A 95 km round trip from Florence - roughly 2 h 02 in the saddle. The stops in between: Villa de Poggio a Caiano, Villa de Cerreto Guidi and back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 19 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Cosimo de' Medici chose a quiet slope just north of Florence for his country house, and in the late 1450s he had the architect Michelozzo rebuild an older castle-like farmhouse at Careggi into a villa. It was not a grand showpiece. It was a working retreat where a banker who ran a city without holding office could think, farm, and entertain scholars. Cosimo died here in 1464, and so did his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1492, which makes the walls rather weighty with Florentine history.
Read the complete Villa de Careggi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de Careggi is where the day begins. Next is Villa de Poggio a Caiano.
Of all the Medici villas, Poggio a Caiano is the one that changed architecture. Lorenzo the Magnificent commissioned it from Giuliano da Sangallo in the 1480s, and the result was something new: a country house raised on an arcaded platform, with a portico topped by a classical pediment, the first time a temple front had been put on a private villa since antiquity. Palladio would develop the idea in the Veneto decades later. Inside, the great hall is decorated with frescoes by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and others, and Pontormo's lunette of Vertumnus and Pomona, with its lazy figures lounging on a wall, is one of the most charming paintings of the Renaissance. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany.
Read the complete Villa de Poggio a Caiano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de Cerreto Guidi.
Cosimo I de' Medici liked to hunt, and in the 1560s he had a villa built on a hilltop at Cerreto Guidi, on the edge of the marshes and woods west of Florence, where the game was plentiful. From the outside it is austere, a solid block of stone facing a square, but the approach is spectacular: a pair of great brick ramps, known as the Medici bridges, zigzag up to the entrance. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany, and it holds a dark legend. Cosimo's daughter Isabella died here in 1576, and the story goes that she was murdered by her husband, Paolo Giordano Orsini, for her alleged infidelity. Whether it is true or not, it is told to every visitor.
Read the complete Villa de Cerreto Guidi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 47 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa de Cerreto Guidi. Next is back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Poggio a Caiano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano, late in the day. Next is Villa de Careggi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Careggi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Villa de Careggi. That is the ride.
Villa de Careggi → Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano → Villa de Cerreto Guidi is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Cerreto Guidi → back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Poggio a Caiano → Villa de Careggi is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.