Why this ride
306 km from Fanzolo to Fanzolo, about 5 h 57 of riding. On the way it passes Villa Thiene, Villa Saraceno, Tombola and Mantua and Sabbioneta. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Emo and Mantua and Sabbioneta
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 306 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 57
- 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 Emo
Andrea Palladio built villas for the Venetian nobility as working farms, not just as country houses, and Villa Emo at Fanzolo is perhaps the purest example of that idea. Completed around 1560 for the Emo family, it stands at the centre of a flat, fertile estate, with a long, symmetrical central block flanked by two arcaded wings, the barchesse, which housed the farm buildings, storage and dovecotes. The ramp leading up to the front door was used for threshing grain. Inside, the rooms are decorated with frescoes by Giovanni Battista Zelotti, mythological and allegorical scenes that bring colour and life to the classical architecture. The villa is part of the UNESCO listing of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Read the complete Villa Emo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Emo is where the day begins. Next is Villa Thiene.
2. Villa Thiene
Quinto Vicentino is a quiet farming town on the flat plain just north-east of Vicenza, and its town hall happens to be a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Thiene was commissioned in the sixteenth century by the brothers Marcantonio and Adriano Thiene, members of one of the most powerful families in Vicenza, and Palladio drew up a grand design for it with courtyards and wings that would have spread across the fields. Only part of that plan was ever built. What stands today is a solid, rather austere block, and the council offices are inside it, which gives the place a pleasingly everyday feeling.
Read the complete Villa Thiene write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Thiene comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Saraceno.
3. Villa Saraceno
In the countryside south of the Berici Hills, near the village of Agugliaro, Villa Saraceno is one of the simplest and most elegant of Andrea Palladio's villas, built in the mid-sixteenth century for Biagio Saraceno, a Vicentine nobleman. It is a compact building with a classical portico of arches and a triangular pediment, set among farmland, and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Read the complete Villa Saraceno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Saraceno. Next is Tombola.
4. Tombola
In the flat, fertile plain south of Verona, near the town of Cerea, a low rise in the fields called Tombola hides the remains of a Bronze Age settlement. The site is listed among the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it belongs to a group of wetland villages that once stood among the marshes of the Valli Grandi Veronesi, a large area of wetland that was drained and reclaimed over the centuries.
Read the complete Tombola write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tombola, about halfway. Next is Mantua and Sabbioneta.
5. Mantua and Sabbioneta
Approach Mantua from the north across the causeway and you see why it was so hard to conquer: the city rises from water on three sides, encircled by lakes formed from the river Mincio, its domes and towers reflected in the still surface. For nearly four centuries it belonged to the Gonzaga family, who turned a marshy town into one of the most brilliant courts of the Renaissance, and Mantua is listed by UNESCO together with Sabbioneta, the small ideal city that a branch of the same family built some thirty kilometres away.
Read the complete Mantua and Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mantua and Sabbioneta sits at 170 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tombola.
6. back through Tombola
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tombola write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Tombola comes up about 191 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Villa Saraceno.
7. back through Villa Saraceno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Saraceno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 233 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Villa Saraceno. Next is back through Villa Thiene.
8. back through Villa Thiene
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Thiene write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Thiene, late in the day. Next is Villa Emo.
9. Villa Emo
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Emo 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 306 km.
Leg by leg
Villa Emo to Villa Thiene
Villa Emo → Villa Thiene is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Thiene to Villa Saraceno
Villa Thiene → Villa Saraceno is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Saraceno to Tombola
Villa Saraceno → Tombola is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tombola to Mantua and Sabbioneta
Tombola → Mantua and Sabbioneta is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mantua and Sabbioneta to back through Tombola
Mantua and Sabbioneta → back through Tombola is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tombola to back through Villa Saraceno
back through Tombola → back through Villa Saraceno is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Saraceno to back through Villa Thiene
back through Villa Saraceno → back through Villa Thiene is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Thiene to Villa Emo
back through Villa Thiene → Villa Emo is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
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- Villa Pisani Ferri and Villa Cornaro · 272 km
- Tombola and Villa Barbaro · 314 km
- Villa Piovene and Villa Saraceno · 302 km