Why this ride
A 298 km round trip from Noventa Vicentina - roughly 6 h 11 in the saddle. The stops in between: Tombola, Mantua and Sabbioneta, Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli and Lagazzi del Vho. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Pojana and Lagazzi del Vho
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 298 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 11
- 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 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 is where the day begins. Next is Tombola.
2. 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 comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mantua and Sabbioneta.
3. 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
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Mantua and Sabbioneta. Next is Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
4. Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
South of Lake Garda, the land rises into a series of low hills, the moraines left behind by the glacier that carved the lake. Among them, in a hollow, lies a small heart-shaped lake, and on a ridge above it stands the walled village of Castellaro Lagusello, one of the most charming in Lombardy. The lake and its marshes are a nature reserve, and on its shore, at Fondo Tacoli, archaeologists found the remains of a Bronze Age pile dwelling settlement, part of the UNESCO group of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli, about halfway. Next is Lagazzi del Vho.
5. Lagazzi del Vho
Four thousand years ago people built a village on stilts at the edge of a marsh here, and the muck preserved it. The Lagazzi del Vho site, near Piadena in the Po plain, was a Bronze Age settlement raised on wooden piles above a wetland, and thousands of its timbers, pots and tools lay waterlogged in the mud until archaeologists recovered them. It is one of the prehistoric pile dwelling sites around the Alps that UNESCO listed in 2011, and Italy has several. You will not see houses, since the evidence lies buried, but you will see a flat green plain that was once water, and a good museum in the town explains the finds.
Read the complete Lagazzi del Vho write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lagazzi del Vho sits at 161 km, about halfway. Next is back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli.
6. back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli comes up about 195 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Mantua and Sabbioneta.
7. back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
about 228 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Mantua and Sabbioneta. Next is back through Tombola.
8. 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, late in the day. Next is Villa Pojana.
9. 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
The route ends here after 298 km.
Leg by leg
Villa Pojana to Tombola
Villa Pojana → Tombola is 32 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 Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
Mantua and Sabbioneta → Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli to Lagazzi del Vho
Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → Lagazzi del Vho is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lagazzi del Vho to back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli
Lagazzi del Vho → back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli to back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
back through Castellaro Lagusello - Fondo Tacoli → back through Mantua and Sabbioneta is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta to back through Tombola
back through 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 Villa Pojana
back through Tombola → Villa Pojana is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.