Cycling Italy

You will have to give us a bit more information than that, my friend. How many kms a day? What kind of bike? What are your interests? What do you like and/or dislike?

...Yes it was a bit vague. But so are my intentions. The only thing I know is that I will start at Rome of 23 May, and finish it Hertfordshire (UK) or 26 July. Between then I will be riding a Pinarello Gallilelo. I expect to do some 40kms a day, depending on what I find interesting along the way. I will be in no hurry to put in mega killometres a day.

The routing could be through the Italian/French Rivieras and up to Paris via south of France, or go the mountain route up to Northern Italy, through Switzerland and then into France and onto Paris. You can pretty much wonder any way you want and if you do end up run short of time, just hop on a train and hit your destination.

The best bet would probably to get yourself Lonely Planet Guides on Italy/France/Benelux countries. I understand that either them or other publishers now have specialty books dedicated to the cycling tourists.

sogood said:

The routing could be through the Italian/French Rivieras and up to Paris via south of France, or go the mountain route up to Northern Italy, through Switzerland and then into France and onto Paris. You can pretty much wonder any way you want and if you do end up run short of time, just hop on a train and hit your destination.

The best bet would probably to get yourself Lonely Planet Guides on Italy/France/Benelux countries. I understand that either them or other publishers now have specialty books dedicated to the cycling tourists.

Thank you for those comments. I was thinking of manly Italy, and a bit of France, but had not realy thought of Switzerland . I'll check a map and see if I can add it to my options.

Then there's another route via Venice and straight up through Austria and Bavaria of Germany, then up the Rheinland and through the Benelux countries to Amsterdam. Then you can dip down to Paris and cross the channel.

So many options. Given it's May and beyond, snow shouldn't be an issue any more over those high passes. Then again, a short hop on the train is cheap and convenient should there be issues.

Another thing. Get a handheld GPS unit with European maps. You won't get lost unless the battery gets flat. 😉

If you are interested, I can point you in the direction of some very nice bike paths. In Trentino, for example.

Are you interested in mountains also in central Italy?

Are you interested in spending time visiting the Italian cittá d'arte (places like Florence, Arezzo, Orvieto, Spoleto, etc?)

Biking there sounds really great. You can just roam around and explore. Get lost maybe. it is beautiful there. Maybe traveling where ever you are to go as if it is the first time. I like going to new places. Riding a bike across the country, any country would be something.

I'd quite like to cycle around the southern Italian coast, but considering the situation that's going on out there at the moment it might be a little too dangerous to.

Maybe in a few years when things have hopefully cooled off.