Why this ride
A 170 km round trip from Lonigo - roughly 3 h 17 in the saddle. It goes by way of Villa Pojana, Villa Trissino, Villa Almerico Capra and Villa Forni Cerato.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Pisani Ferri and Villa Forni Cerato
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 170 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 17
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Pisani Ferri
Andrea Palladio was still a young architect, not long out of his training as a stonemason, when the Pisani brothers, members of a powerful Venetian family, asked him to design a country house at Bagnolo, near Lonigo, in the late 1530s or early 1540s. The result, now known as Villa Pisani Ferri, is one of his early villas, a solid, symmetrical house with a grand central hall and a facade facing the river, part of the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Visits depend on the owners' arrangements, so check ahead if you hope to go inside.
Read the complete Villa Pisani Ferri write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Pisani Ferri is where the day begins. Next is Villa Pojana.
2. Villa Pojana
Andrea Palladio could make a farmhouse look like a temple, and at Villa Pojana he did it with remarkable restraint. Built in the mid-sixteenth century for Bonifacio Pojana, a nobleman with military ambitions, the villa stands in the village of Poiana Maggiore in the flat country south of Vicenza. Its facade is almost bare: a great arched entrance framed by a Serlian motif with round windows, a pediment above, smooth plaster walls. The interior has frescoes by artists of the time. Like other Palladian villas of the Veneto, it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of the city of Vicenza and the villas around it.
Read the complete Villa Pojana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Pojana comes up 20 km in. Next is Villa Trissino.
3. Villa Trissino
A Palladio villa that was never finished can be more interesting than one that was. At Meledo, a hamlet in the municipality of Sarego south of Vicenza, Andrea Palladio drew up grand plans for the Trissino brothers in the mid-sixteenth century: a central block topped by a dome, with long curved colonnades stretching out like arms toward the river. Only a fragment was built, and what you see today is a modest farm building and some remains incorporated into later structures. Yet the design, published in Palladio's Four Books of Architecture, became one of his most influential, and the site is part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto.
Read the complete Villa Trissino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
41 km in you reach Villa Trissino. Next is Villa Almerico Capra.
4. Villa Almerico Capra
The Villa Almerico Capra, known as La Rotonda, stands on a small hill above Vicenza, and it is one of the most copied buildings in the history of architecture. Andrea Palladio began it in the 1560s for a retired papal official, Paolo Almerico, who wanted a place for entertaining and for looking at the view rather than for farming. The plan is a perfect square, with a round hall under a dome at the centre, and each of the four sides has an identical portico with Ionic columns and a flight of steps, so that the house presents the same face to every direction. The idea was that the building should be an ornament to the landscape, and the landscape an ornament to the house.
Read the complete Villa Almerico Capra write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Almerico Capra, about halfway. Next is Villa Forni Cerato.
5. 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.
Read the complete Villa Forni Cerato write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Forni Cerato sits at 82 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Almerico Capra.
6. back through Villa Almerico Capra
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Almerico Capra write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Almerico Capra comes up 102 km in. Next is back through Villa Trissino.
7. back through Villa Trissino
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Trissino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
122 km in you reach back through Villa Trissino. Next is back through Villa Pojana.
8. back through Villa Pojana
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pojana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Pojana, late in the day. Next is Villa Pisani Ferri.
9. Villa Pisani Ferri
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pisani Ferri 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 170 km.
Leg by leg
Villa Pisani Ferri to Villa Pojana
Villa Pisani Ferri → Villa Pojana is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Pojana to Villa Trissino
Villa Pojana → Villa Trissino is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Trissino to Villa Almerico Capra
Villa Trissino → Villa Almerico Capra is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Almerico Capra to Villa Forni Cerato
Villa Almerico Capra → Villa Forni Cerato is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Forni Cerato to back through Villa Almerico Capra
Villa Forni Cerato → back through Villa Almerico Capra is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Almerico Capra to back through Villa Trissino
back through Villa Almerico Capra → back through Villa Trissino is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Trissino to back through Villa Pojana
back through Villa Trissino → back through Villa Pojana is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Pojana to Villa Pisani Ferri
back through Villa Pojana → Villa Pisani Ferri is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.