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.
A 142 km round trip from Fiesole - roughly 3 h 04 in the saddle. On the way it passes Villa de Il Trebbio, Villa de Poggio a Caiano and back through Villa de Il Trebbio. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 28 km this is Chiantigiana Wine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Villa de Il Trebbio.
The Medici came from the Mugello, and Il Trebbio is one of the places where you can see it. The family's rise to Florentine power in the fifteenth century began in these hills north of the city, among farms and woods where they held land long before they held banks and palaces. Il Trebbio is a fortified villa near San Piero a Sieve, redesigned for Cosimo the Elder by the architect Michelozzo, and its crenellated walls, tower and gardens mark it as a country retreat that is also, quietly, a statement of status. It is one of the Medici villas listed by UNESCO in 2013.
Read the complete Villa de Il Trebbio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villa de Il Trebbio comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa de Poggio a Caiano. Next is back through Villa de Il Trebbio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa de Il Trebbio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villa de Il Trebbio, late in the day. Next is 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 at Villa Medici de Fiesole. That is the ride.
Villa Medici de Fiesole → Villa de Il Trebbio is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Il Trebbio → Villa de Poggio a Caiano is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa de Poggio a Caiano → back through Villa de Il Trebbio is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa de Il Trebbio → Villa Medici de Fiesole is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.