Gravel Means Freedom To Travel

Travelling while simply relying on your own resources, no ties, no racing against the clock, sometimes even no set destination. With a racing bike the freedom is limited to asphalt roads. But sometimes the asphalt is replaced by dirt roads, some of which are not transitable and you need to know them in order not to have to turn back again. Cycling becomes cycle tourism because there’s time to pause for a while and take a look around. Stopwatch mode yields to “I’m enjoying the view” mode.

Discovering Veneto and its UNESCO World Heritage Sites by bike

Il Veneto è riconosciuto come regione dalla profonda vocazione ciclistica. E la bicicletta è più che mai in questo periodo storico il veicolo più efficace per conoscere il territorio.

Terre Nobili is an exclusive and transverse event at the same time because it puts cyclists in contact with their elected environment: nature. But it also provides contact with no less than 7 of the 9 UNESCO sites in Veneto:

VENICE AND ITS LAGOON

A unique city in the world and one that needs no presentation. There is a uniqueness and peculiarity about its historic, archaeological, urban, architectural and artistic heritage and exceptional cultural traditions, set in an equally extraordinary environmental, natural and panoramic context.

Venezia

PADUA

A group of eight monuments in the historic centre of Padua, inside of which are conserved cycles of 14th century frescoes and paintings by Giotto, Guariento, Giusto de’ Menabuoi, Altichiero da Zevio, Jacopo Avanzi and Jacopo da Verona.

Padua

PADUA BOTANICAL GARDEN

Founded in 1545, it is the world’s oldest university botanical garden.

Botanical Garden

VICENZA AND THE PALLADIAN VILLAS

Adorned with majestic architecture around every corner that boasts a single name: Andrea Palladio.

Vicenza

THE CITY OF VERONA

A city of art and culture and the city of love sublime with Romeo and Juliet conserves a large number of ancient monuments from the medieval and Renaissance periods.
Verona

THE VENETIAN WORKS OF DEFENCE - STATO DA TERRA – STATO DA MAR The

The city of Peschiera del Garda, the pentagon-shaped fortified city.

Opere di difesa

PILE-DWELLING SITES

In addition to the prized series of protected Heritage Sites in Veneto, UNESCO has recognised two important Pile-dwelling sites located at Peschiera del Garda, between Belvedere and Frassino, and in the Laghetto della Costa at Arquà Petrarca, at the foot of the Euganean hills.
Pile-dwelling sites

Cycling Through Our Terre Nobili

Start

The town of Caorle, a delightful seaside resort full of Venetian charm, will be the start and finish point for our excursion. Caorle is an ancient town with a strong maritime character, home to fishermen who every afternoon arrive with their hauls for the fish market. The Caorle lagoon is a protected nature area where the typical wooden fishermen’s huts can still be seen.
Caorle

First check point

The first check point is at Padua, the splendid city of St. Anthony, at the Monti Velodrome near Prato della Valle, one of the largest piazzas in Europe.

Padua

Second check point

The second check point is at Peschiera del Garda, a lakeside town unique in its kind, that looks out over the southernmost shore of Lake Garda, sheltered from the winds on the banks of the Benaco and the river Mincio.

Peschiera del Garda

Third check point

The third check point is at Montegrotto Terme. Along with Abano, Montegrotto is the largest and oldest Thermal Spa town in Europe, specialising in mud-bath therapy. It seems that the health-giving springs of the Spas at Montegrotto were used for the first time during the Iron Age, thereby confirming the existence of a genuine ancient cult of water worship in the area around the Euganean Hills.
Montegrotto Terme