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.
311 km from Poggio A Caiano to Poggio A Caiano, about 6 h 12 of riding. It goes by way of Villa Medici de Fiesole, Sasso Fratino, Teatro Angelo Mariani and back through Sasso Fratino. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 25 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 Medici de Fiesole.
Fiesole sits on a hill above Florence, and it has looked down on the city for much longer than Florence has existed. The Etruscans founded a settlement here, and the Romans built a theatre, baths and a temple that are still visible. When the Medici came to power in the fifteenth century they chose the slope below Fiesole for a country villa, and Giovanni de' Medici, the younger son of Cosimo, commissioned Michelozzo to design one around 1450. The result, Villa Medici, is built on terraces cut into the hillside, with a loggia that opens out over a sweeping view of the Arno valley and the dome of Florence cathedral.
Read the complete Villa Medici de Fiesole write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa Medici de Fiesole comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sasso Fratino.
Sasso Fratino is a forest you are not allowed to enter, and that is precisely the point. High on the Romagna side of the Apennine ridge, in the national park of the Casentino forests, it was declared Italy's first integral nature reserve in 1959, and since then nature has been left almost entirely to itself. Ancient beech woods cling to steep slopes, with silver fir, maple and ash mixed in, and dead trees are left to rot where they fall, feeding fungi, beetles and birds. In 2017 it became part of the transnational World Heritage listing of ancient beech forests of Europe.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Sasso Fratino. Next is Teatro Angelo Mariani.
Sant'Agata Feltria is a small hill town in the upper Marecchia valley, with a castle on a rock, steep streets and one of the oldest wooden theatres in Italy. The Teatro Angelo Mariani dates from the early seventeenth century and has been rebuilt and restored over the centuries, with tiers of wooden boxes painted in soft colours around a small stage. It is named after Angelo Mariani, a nineteenth-century conductor who was a close collaborator of Verdi. The theatre is intimate, seating a few hundred at most, and it still hosts concerts and plays.
Read the complete Teatro Angelo Mariani write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Teatro Angelo Mariani, about halfway. Next is back through Sasso Fratino.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sasso Fratino write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sasso Fratino sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Medici de Fiesole.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Medici de Fiesole write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa Medici de Fiesole comes up about 286 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano closes the day.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano → Villa Medici de Fiesole is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Medici de Fiesole → Sasso Fratino is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sasso Fratino → Teatro Angelo Mariani is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Teatro Angelo Mariani → back through Sasso Fratino is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sasso Fratino → back through Villa Medici de Fiesole is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Medici de Fiesole → Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.