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.
From Sesto Fiorentino it runs 321 km to Sesto Fiorentino; allow about 5 h 35 of riding. On the way it passes Villa La Magia, Historic Centre of San Gimignano, Historic Centre of Siena and back through Historic Centre of San Gimignano. 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 31 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
La Petraia stands on the slope above Castello, on the north-western edge of Florence, and the first thing you notice is its tower, a leftover from the medieval fortress that stood here before the Medici made it a villa. Ferdinando de' Medici bought it in the 1560s and had Buontalenti reshape it, keeping the tower and building around it, so that the house looks like a small castle that learned manners. The garden below is laid out in terraces, with a fountain topped by a Venus wringing out her hair, a famous work by Giambologna.
Read the complete Villa de la Petraia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de la Petraia is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa La Magia comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of San Gimignano. Next is Historic Centre of Siena.
Siena sits on three ridges in the heart of Tuscany, a red-brick medieval city that has hardly changed its shape in seven hundred years. At its centre is the Piazza del Campo, a sloping, shell-shaped square paved in brick and divided into nine sections, a reminder of the Council of Nine that governed the city in its golden age. The Palazzo Pubblico, with the slender Torre del Mangia, stands at the bottom of the square, and inside are frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti showing the effects of good and bad government, painted in the fourteenth century.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Siena write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Siena, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of San Gimignano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of San Gimignano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of San Gimignano sits at 168 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa La Magia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa La Magia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa La Magia comes up about 290 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de la Petraia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de la Petraia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de la Petraia closes the day.
Villa de la Petraia → Villa La Magia is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa La Magia → Historic Centre of San Gimignano is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of San Gimignano → Historic Centre of Siena is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Siena → back through Historic Centre of San Gimignano is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of San Gimignano → back through Villa La Magia is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa La Magia → Villa de la Petraia is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.