Why this ride
367 km from Florence to Florence, about 5 h 40 of riding. It goes by way of Villa de Cerreto Guidi, Villa de Castello, Montecatini Terme and Piazza del Duomo. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa du Poggio Imperiale and Piazza del Duomo
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 367 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 40
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Villa du Poggio Imperiale
Poggio Imperiale announces itself with an avenue, a long, straight, cypress-lined approach running up from Porta Romana in Florence, with statues in niches and the villa waiting at the top like the end of a sentence. It began as a Medici property in the sixteenth century, but its grand form came in the 1620s, when Maria Maddalena of Austria, wife of Cosimo II, enlarged it and gave it the name Imperiale in a nod to her Habsburg origins. The cool neoclassical front you see today was added in the early nineteenth century under Napoleonic rule.
Read the complete Villa du Poggio Imperiale write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa du Poggio Imperiale is where the day begins. Next is Villa de Cerreto Guidi.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa de Cerreto Guidi comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de Castello.
3. Villa de Castello
The Villa di Castello stands on the north-western edge of Florence, in the flat land below Monte Morello, and the huge city has grown right up to its gates. Sesto Fiorentino, a town of forty-five thousand people, is three kilometres away, and the centre of Florence a few more. The villa is one of the Medici villas that UNESCO inscribed in 2013, and it is an unusual one, because the garden is the main attraction and the house inside is plain.
Read the complete Villa de Castello write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa de Castello. Next is Montecatini Terme.
4. Montecatini Terme
The water at Montecatini has been drunk for health since the Middle Ages, but it was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the town became one of the great spa resorts of Europe, with grand thermal establishments built in neoclassical, Liberty and Art Deco styles, set in parks of plane trees and pines. The Tettuccio, with its marble colonnades and frescoes, is the most famous, a temple of water where visitors drink from taps along a counter. In 2021 Montecatini became part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Vichy and others.
Read the complete Montecatini Terme write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Montecatini Terme, about halfway. Next is Piazza del Duomo.
5. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Piazza del Duomo sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through Montecatini Terme.
6. back through Montecatini Terme
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Montecatini Terme write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Montecatini Terme comes up about 239 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa de Castello.
7. back through Villa de Castello
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Castello write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 286 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa de Castello. Next is back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi.
8. back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Cerreto Guidi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi, late in the day. Next is Villa du Poggio Imperiale.
9. Villa du Poggio Imperiale
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa du Poggio Imperiale write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 367 km.
Leg by leg
Villa du Poggio Imperiale to Villa de Cerreto Guidi
Villa du Poggio Imperiale → Villa de Cerreto Guidi is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Cerreto Guidi to Villa de Castello
Villa de Cerreto Guidi → Villa de Castello is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Castello to Montecatini Terme
Villa de Castello → Montecatini Terme is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Montecatini Terme to Piazza del Duomo
Montecatini Terme → Piazza del Duomo is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Piazza del Duomo to back through Montecatini Terme
Piazza del Duomo → back through Montecatini Terme is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Montecatini Terme to back through Villa de Castello
back through Montecatini Terme → back through Villa de Castello is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Castello to back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi
back through Villa de Castello → back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi to Villa du Poggio Imperiale
back through Villa de Cerreto Guidi → Villa du Poggio Imperiale is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.