Why this ride
A 323 km round trip from Montagnana - roughly 5 h 06 in the saddle. The stops in between: Villa Badoer, Oratory of St.Michael, Villa Cornaro and Venice and its Lagoon. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Pisani and Venice and its Lagoon
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 323 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 06
- 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
Villa Cornaro → Venice and its Lagoon
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 44 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 37 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Villa Pisani
Montagnana is one of the best-preserved walled towns in Europe, with its entire ring of medieval brick walls, towers and gates still standing around the old centre, and just outside the eastern gate stands a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Pisani at Montagnana, built for Francesco Pisani in the 1550s, is a two-storey palace with a classical façade facing the road, part of the UNESCO listing of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Unlike most of Palladio's country villas, it sits right at the edge of town, more urban palazzo than farmhouse, and its elegant columns make a striking contrast with the rugged walls nearby.
Read the complete Villa Pisani write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Pisani is where the day begins. Next is Villa Badoer.
2. Villa Badoer
Fratta Polesine is a quiet village in the Polesine, the flat, fertile land between the Adige and the Po in the south of the Veneto, and its pride is a villa by Andrea Palladio. Villa Badoer, built in the 1550s for Francesco Badoer, a Venetian nobleman, stands on a raised platform above the surrounding fields, with a temple-front portico, curved colonnades sweeping out on either side to farm buildings, and a grand staircase. It was the first of Palladio's villas to use the curved barchesse, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto. Inside, the walls carry frescoes, and the villa houses a museum about the Polesine and its history.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Badoer comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Oratory of St.Michael, 44 km on.
3. Oratory of St.Michael
In the old centre of Padua, near the medieval tower that later became an astronomical observatory, a small oratory hides one of the city's quieter treasures. The Oratory of St Michael contains frescoes painted by Jacopo da Verona at the end of the fourteenth century, scenes from the life of the Virgin populated with recognisable citizens of Padua dressed in the fashions of the day. It is one of eight sites inscribed in 2021 as Padua's fourteenth-century fresco cycles, the group that also includes Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel.
Read the complete Oratory of St.Michael write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Oratory of St.Michael. Next is Villa Cornaro.
4. Villa Cornaro
Piombino Dese is a quiet village on the flat plain between Padua and Treviso, the kind of place you pass through on the way to somewhere else. Stop on the main road, though, and look at the house set back behind its lawn. Villa Cornaro was designed by Andrea Palladio in the early 1550s for Giorgio Cornaro, a member of one of the grandest Venetian families, and its central portico rises in two storeys of columns, one loggia stacked on another like a temple front on a temple front. On the garden side the same double loggia faces a long lawn. It is one of the most copied houses in architectural history, and echoes of it can be seen in country houses across England and in mansions of the American South. The villa is part of the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and it opens to visitors on certain days in the warmer months.
Read the complete Villa Cornaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Cornaro, about halfway. Next is Venice and its Lagoon.
5. Venice and its Lagoon
Venice is the only great city in Europe where your motorcycle is entirely useless. The road ends at Piazzale Roma, at the end of a long bridge across the lagoon, and from there on, everything happens on foot or by boat. The city and its lagoon are listed by UNESCO as a whole, a recognition that the islands, the canals, the salt marshes and the fishing villages form a single living system, shaped by over a thousand years of human effort to keep the sea out and the city afloat.
Read the complete Venice and its Lagoon write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Venice and its Lagoon sits at 174 km, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Cornaro.
6. back through Villa Cornaro
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Cornaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Cornaro comes up about 198 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Oratory of St.Michael, 43 km on.
7. back through Oratory of St.Michael
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Oratory of St.Michael write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 230 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Oratory of St.Michael. Next is back through Villa Badoer.
8. back through Villa Badoer
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Badoer write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Villa Badoer, late in the day. Next is Villa Pisani.
9. Villa Pisani
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Pisani 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 323 km.
Leg by leg
Villa Pisani to Villa Badoer
Villa Pisani → Villa Badoer is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Badoer to Oratory of St.Michael
Villa Badoer → Oratory of St.Michael is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Oratory of St.Michael to Villa Cornaro
Oratory of St.Michael → Villa Cornaro is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Cornaro to Venice and its Lagoon
Villa Cornaro → Venice and its Lagoon is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Venice and its Lagoon to back through Villa Cornaro
Venice and its Lagoon → back through Villa Cornaro is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Cornaro to back through Oratory of St.Michael
back through Villa Cornaro → back through Oratory of St.Michael is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Oratory of St.Michael to back through Villa Badoer
back through Oratory of St.Michael → back through Villa Badoer is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Badoer to Villa Pisani
back through Villa Badoer → Villa Pisani is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.