Bicycle routesThe Veneto by bicycle
Fratta Polesine to Monselice
Rovigo - Monselice 48 km - Altimetry and time schedule Flag

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A bicycle route through the lowlands between the Euganean Hills and the Po River. The route is completely flat, in part along a dedicated bicycle path, and in part along roads with little traffic. Only the short section along the Adige is barely cyclable due to a road that is narrow and busy with traffic.

Point of departure is the train station at Rovigo. Upon leaving the station follow along the station to the right [south], up to a rotary; here turn to the right to pass underneath the railroad tracks and immediately after take the street to the right, Via Marco Polo, which shortly after becomes Via Dante Gallani.

After a short distance you will find a bridge over a canal, the Adigetto [little Adige] along which there is a bicycle path; cross the bridge and take the path that goes to the left; the bike path continues along the Adigetto for about a mile and ends at Via Ponte Santa Croce; here, by turning first to the left and then right you can get back on to Via Dante Gallani; the road follows along the Adigetto, passes underneath the Autostrada and immediately after we find on the right a sign indicating a new section of bicycle path which continues along the Adigetto as far as the village of Costa di Rovigo. From the central piazza take Via Umberto I which then becomes Via JF Kennedy and Via Campagna Vecchia finally to arrive at Fratta Polesine.

Fratta Polesine is a small village but rich with Venetian villas: this because at the time of the Repubblica Serenissima [nickname for the Venetian Republic] the great Venetian families had determined this to be the center from which to administer their lands and the land reclamation process. By far the most famous is the Villa Badoer by Andrea Palladio located within the village along the Scortico Canal; to its left Villa Grimani-Molin seems to imitate Badoer. Within the village there are also: Villa Monti, Villa Dolfin, Palazzo Labia and Villa Matteotti, birth place of Giacomo Matteotti [a politician murdered in 1924 by the Fascists for his anti-Fascist stance. RB].

From Fratta take the road towards the train station, along the Scortico Canal and follow along the left bank [west side] of the canal as far as Ramedello and Villanova del Ghebbo. From here take the road to Bornio where you cross state route SR 88 and then take the road to Lusia. Take Via Torre which passes by the Torre Morosini [Morosini Tower] and then Via Rampa which takes you directly to the bridge over the Adige River.

Once across the Adige turn to the right towards Via Rialto, a narrow road without a bike lane and heavy with traffic; after a broad curve to the left you will come, on the left, to a side road for Vescovana and Monselice. This section is a small, narrow country road but with little traffic. Once you have arrived at Vescovana take Via Giacomo Matteotti, to the left, and then continue towards Granzè and Sant'Elena where there is a large villa with a park. From here take Via 24 Maggio as far as the locality of Ca` Oddo, where, on the left, there is a new bike path that takes one directly as far as Monselice, with a train station on the Venezia-Bologna line.

If you wish you could continue and go back by way of the Padova-Monselice bike route.


Last Visit: 2012-04-09.