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.
421 km from Poggio A Caiano to Poggio A Caiano, about 7 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Villa de Cafaggiolo, Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, Baraccano and Cathedral. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 41 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.
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 is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de Cafaggiolo comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 45 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 104 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 181 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 261 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola, 45 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 317 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola. Next is back through Villa de Cafaggiolo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Cafaggiolo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa de Cafaggiolo, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 421 km.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano → Villa de Cafaggiolo is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Cafaggiolo → Vena del Gesso Romagnola - M.te Penzola is 63 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 Cafaggiolo is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Cafaggiolo → Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.