Why this ride
A 173 km round trip from Arbizzano-Santa Maria - roughly 3 h 53 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda, Lucone, Frassino and back through Lucone.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Serego and Frassino
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 173 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 53
- 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
Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 25 km this is Mille Miglia Historic Route Core, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 25 km
- Named road
- Mille Miglia Historic Route Core
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Villa Serego
Andrea Palladio built many villas around the Veneto, but the one at Santa Sofia di Pedemonte, in the Valpolicella just north-west of Verona, is the oddball of the family. Commissioned by Marcantonio Serego in the mid-sixteenth century and never finished, it has none of the smooth classical calm of the Rotonda. Instead its courtyard is lined with giant Ionic columns built up from rough, rusticated blocks of local stone, as if the building were half turning back into the hillside. Only part of the planned design was completed, and the effect is wonderfully strange.
Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Serego is where the day begins. Next is Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda.
2. Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Water surrounds Peschiera on every side, and that was the whole idea. The town sits where the River Mincio flows out of the southern end of Lake Garda, and in the sixteenth century the Republic of Venice turned it into a star-shaped fortress with massive pentagonal walls, bastions and moats fed by the lake and the river. Later the Austrians made it one of the four corners of the Quadrilatero, the defensive square of fortresses that guarded their hold on northern Italy in the nineteenth century. In 2017 Peschiera became part of the UNESCO listing of Venetian works of defence between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, alongside Bergamo, Palmanova and fortresses on the Adriatic.
Read the complete Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lucone.
3. Lucone
Lucone is a small basin in the green hills of the Valtènesi, just west of Lake Garda, and it is one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps. Once there was a little lake here, and during the Bronze Age people built villages of wooden houses raised on piles along its shore. The lake later turned to marsh and peat, which preserved the timbers, pottery and organic remains in waterlogged conditions for thousands of years. What you see today is a gentle, wooded hollow among vineyards and fields, and you need some imagination; the finds are in the archaeological museum in nearby Gavardo.
Read the complete Lucone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Lucone. Next is Frassino.
4. Frassino
Just outside Peschiera del Garda, at the southern tip of the lake, the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Frassino stands among vineyards and fields. According to legend, in 1510 a farmer working in his vineyard was threatened by a snake, prayed to the Virgin and found a small statue of the Madonna in the branches of an ash tree, frassino in Italian. The snake disappeared, and the sanctuary was built on the spot. Today it is a Franciscan church and convent, with a cloister and a collection of votive offerings left by the grateful over the centuries.
Read the complete Frassino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Frassino, about halfway. Next is back through Lucone.
5. back through Lucone
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lucone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Lucone sits at 105 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda.
6. back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda comes up about 143 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Serego.
7. Villa Serego
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Serego write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Serego closes the day.
Leg by leg
Villa Serego to Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
Villa Serego → Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda to Lucone
Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda → Lucone is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lucone to Frassino
Lucone → Frassino is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Frassino to back through Lucone
Frassino → back through Lucone is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lucone to back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda
back through Lucone → back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda to Villa Serego
back through Fortified city of Peschiera del Garda → Villa Serego is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.