Villa Forni Cerato and Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
174 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 47
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.
From Sandrigo it runs 174 km to Sandrigo; allow about 3 h 47 of riding. It goes by way of Villa Angarano, Villa Barbaro, Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va and back through Villa Barbaro. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Villa Forni Cerato
Not every Palladian villa is a palace. Villa Forni Cerato, in Montecchio Precalcino north of Vicenza, is a small, modest building, a cube with a simple loggia and pediment, built in the mid-sixteenth century for Girolamo Forni, a timber merchant and amateur painter. Its attribution to Palladio has been debated, but it is included in the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and its compact harmony shows how Palladio's ideas worked even at a small scale. It is privately owned and not always open, so check before planning a visit.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Forni Cerato is where the day begins. Next is Villa Angarano.
2. Villa Angarano
Bassano del Grappa sits where the river Brenta leaves the mountains and spreads onto the Venetian plain, and its symbol is a covered wooden bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, designed by Palladio in the sixteenth century and rebuilt several times since after floods and wars. On the right bank of the river, just outside the town, stands Villa Angarano, a country house whose two long colonnaded wings were designed by Palladio, while the central residence was built later, in a different style, by the Venetian architect Baldassare Longhena. The villa is still a working wine estate and belongs to the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Angarano comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Barbaro.
3. Villa Barbaro
At the foot of the Asolo hills, near the village of Maser, a long, golden villa looks out over the plain with the mountains behind it. Villa Barbaro was designed by Andrea Palladio in the 1550s for the brothers Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro, cultivated Venetian patricians, and it is one of his most perfect works, combining a central house like a temple with long arcaded wings for farm buildings. Inside, the rooms are covered with frescoes by Paolo Veronese, among the finest of the Venetian Renaissance: painted landscapes, mythological figures and trompe l'oeil doors with servants peeping through, a game of illusion that still surprises visitors. Behind the villa, a nymphaeum with statues and a pool sits against the hillside, and nearby stands the Tempietto, a small round church also designed by Palladio. The villa is part of the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and it remains a working estate producing wine.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Barbaro. Next is Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va.
4. Le Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Va
These are not soft, rolling wine hills. Between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, the foothills of the Pre-Alps rise in steep hogback ridges, sharp crests of rock running east to west, with vines clinging to slopes so steep that much of the work is still done by hand. Grass-covered terraces called ciglioni hold the soil in place, and the result is a patchwork of vines, woods and small villages that UNESCO listed in 2019.