CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 146 km round trip from Turin - roughly 2 h 57 in the saddle. The stops in between: Castello di Rivoli, Sacro Monte di Belmonte and back through Castello di Rivoli. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Turin is the city that made the Savoy dynasty into the kings of Italy, and the area known as the Zona di Comando, the Command Zone, is the heart of that story. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the dukes of Savoy, who had moved their capital to Turin in 1563, laid out a grand ensemble of palaces, courtyards and arcades around the old castle, turning a provincial town into a stage for royal power. Piazza Castello is the centre, with the Palazzo Madama, a medieval castle with a baroque facade, and the Palazzo Reale, the royal palace, with its gardens and the Royal Armoury. It is part of the UNESCO group of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, listed in 1997.
Read the complete Zona di Commando write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zona di Commando is where the day begins. Next is Castello di Rivoli.
Rivoli stands on a ridge at the mouth of the Susa valley, where the Alps give way to the plain of Turin, and the Savoy dukes liked it for exactly that reason: from the castle terrace, you can see the city to the east and the wall of mountains to the west. A fortress stood here in the Middle Ages, and in the eighteenth century the architect Filippo Juvarra began to rebuild it as a grand residence for Victor Amadeus II. The duke, who had become King of Sardinia, ended his days here in 1732, reportedly confined by his own son, and the great project was never finished.
Read the complete Castello di Rivoli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castello di Rivoli comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sacro Monte di Belmonte.
On a granite hill rising above the Canavese plain north of Turin, the Sacro Monte di Belmonte looks out over the foothills toward the Alps. The sanctuary, run by Franciscan friars, has a church and a circuit of chapels representing the stations of the Passion, built in the early eighteenth century on a site that had long been a place of pilgrimage. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy, and the walk around the chapels, under chestnut and oak trees, is calm and shady even in summer.
Read the complete Sacro Monte di Belmonte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Sacro Monte di Belmonte. Next is back through Castello di Rivoli.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castello di Rivoli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castello di Rivoli, late in the day. Next is Zona di Commando.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zona di Commando write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Zona di Commando. That is the ride.
Zona di Commando → Castello di Rivoli is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castello di Rivoli → Sacro Monte di Belmonte is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sacro Monte di Belmonte → back through Castello di Rivoli is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castello di Rivoli → Zona di Commando is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.