Why this ride
A 93 km round trip from Florence - roughly 2 h 09 in the saddle. The stops in between: Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany, Villa de Poggio a Caiano and back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa du Poggio Imperiale and Villa de Poggio a Caiano
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 93 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 09
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
Chiantigiana Wine Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 17 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 17 km
- Named road
- Chiantigiana Wine Road
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 Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany.
2. Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany
The Medici left behind a necklace of villas around Florence, and the group of them listed by UNESCO in 2013 shows how a banking family turned itself into a ruling dynasty with the help of architecture. Humanists, painters and poets were invited to talk and eat in these gardens, which is where some of the Renaissance really happened.
Read the complete Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa de Poggio a Caiano.
3. Villa de Poggio a Caiano
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 47 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa de Poggio a Caiano. Next is back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany.
4. back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany, late in the day. Next is Villa du Poggio Imperiale.
5. 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
Back at Villa du Poggio Imperiale. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Villa du Poggio Imperiale to Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany
Villa du Poggio Imperiale → Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany to Villa de Poggio a Caiano
Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany → Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano to back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany
Villa de Poggio a Caiano → back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany to Villa du Poggio Imperiale
back through Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany → Villa du Poggio Imperiale is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.