Why this ride
244 km from Ceggia to Ceggia, about 4 h 18 of riding. On the way it passes Venice and its Lagoon, Villa Cornaro, Villa Barbaro and back through Villa Cornaro.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Villa Zeno and Villa Barbaro
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 244 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 18
- 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 Zeno → 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 51 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 57 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Villa Zeno
Andrea Palladio designed Villa Zeno at Cessalto in the middle of the sixteenth century, and it stands among the flat fields of the lower Piave plain, about five kilometres from the little town of Ceggia and not far from the Livenza river. It is one of the villas of the Veneto that were collectively inscribed on the World Heritage list, and it is quite different from the grand Palladian pieces near Vicenza: an agricultural house, plain and practical, with a broad central block and a pair of long service wings.
Read the complete Villa Zeno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Zeno is where the day begins. Next is Venice and its Lagoon.
2. 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 comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Cornaro.
3. 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
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Villa Cornaro. Next is Villa Barbaro.
4. Villa Barbaro
At the foot of the Asolo hills, near the village of Maser, a long, golden villa looks out over the plain with the mountains behind it. Villa Barbaro was designed by Andrea Palladio in the 1550s for the brothers Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro, cultivated Venetian patricians, and it is one of his most perfect works, combining a central house like a temple with long arcaded wings for farm buildings. Inside, the rooms are covered with frescoes by Paolo Veronese, among the finest of the Venetian Renaissance: painted landscapes, mythological figures and trompe l'oeil doors with servants peeping through, a game of illusion that still surprises visitors. Behind the villa, a nymphaeum with statues and a pool sits against the hillside, and nearby stands the Tempietto, a small round church also designed by Palladio. The villa is part of the UNESCO site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and it remains a working estate producing wine.
Read the complete Villa Barbaro write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Barbaro, about halfway. Next is back through Villa Cornaro.
5. 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 sits at 168 km, about halfway. Next is back through Venice and its Lagoon.
6. back through Venice and its Lagoon
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Venice and its Lagoon comes up about 188 km into the recorded legs. Next is Villa Zeno.
7. Villa Zeno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villa Zeno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Villa Zeno closes the day.
Leg by leg
Villa Zeno to Venice and its Lagoon
Villa Zeno → Venice and its Lagoon is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Venice and its Lagoon to Villa Cornaro
Venice and its Lagoon → Villa Cornaro is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Cornaro to Villa Barbaro
Villa Cornaro → Villa Barbaro is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villa Barbaro to back through Villa Cornaro
Villa Barbaro → back through Villa Cornaro is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villa Cornaro to back through Venice and its Lagoon
back through Villa Cornaro → back through Venice and its Lagoon is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Venice and its Lagoon to Villa Zeno
back through Venice and its Lagoon → Villa Zeno is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.