CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Poggio A Caiano it runs 426 km to Poggio A Caiano; allow about 7 h 13 of riding. It goes by way of Piazza del Duomo, Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Ape and back through Piazza del Duomo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 Piazza del Duomo.
Nothing prepares you for that first glimpse through the gateway. A wide green lawn, and set on it like ornaments on a cloth, the white marble cathedral, the round baptistery, the cemetery cloister of the Camposanto, and of course the bell tower, leaning at an angle that looks wrong no matter how many photographs you have seen. The Piazza del Duomo in Pisa, also called the Field of Miracles, was one of the first places in Italy to be listed by UNESCO, back in 1987.
Read the complete Piazza del Duomo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Piazza del Duomo comes up 86 km in. Next is Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Ape.
Gypsum dissolves in water far faster than limestone, and in the upper valley of the Secchia, in the Reggio Emilia Apennines, that simple fact has produced a strange landscape of white cliffs, sinkholes, caves and underground rivers. The Evaporitic Karst and Caves of the Northern Apennines were added to the World Heritage list in 2023, and this area near Castelnovo ne' Monti and Villa Minozzo holds some of the most striking outcrops, ancient Triassic gypsum that glitters in the sun and forms steep walls above the river. Near the Secchia, the springs of Poiano gush out of the rock with a strong flow of slightly salty water, fed by the karst system.
Read the complete Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Ape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
172 km in you reach Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Ape. Next is back through Piazza del Duomo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Piazza del Duomo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Piazza del Duomo, 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.
Back at Villa de Poggio a Caiano. That is the ride.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano → Piazza del Duomo is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Piazza del Duomo → Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Ape is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Ape → back through Piazza del Duomo is 99 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Piazza del Duomo → Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.