Four of us are planning a trip to Italy the last two weeks of October. The plan is to rent a place for the two weeks and cycle from there. We will also have a car and can drive to some good rides. The preference would be an area with small, less traveled roads, beautiful scenery, pictureque towns, and wonderful pastry/espresso shops. Since it's the end of October weather is also a consideration. Any advice? carlie
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,
Posts: 9 | Location: santa fe, nm, usa | Registered: 03 August 2003
Bravo, people after my own heart -- even if cycling is a bit fast! for me (as the regulars onboard know ad nauseam, I walk).
Your first step is to determine how much hill and mountain you want to do. That will determine your home base. On a very approximate macro scale:
Emilia-Romagna and Southern Lombardy are flat
Piemonte, Toscana, most of the Marche are rolling to hilly
Umbria, the Apennine Marche and the Abruzzo are hilly-to-mountainous
Northern Lombardy and the whole Swiss-Austrian-French border are of course mountainous
the rest of the country I'd have to do what you should be doing too, viz. look at a good relief map.
On a more micro scale, are you planning on multi-day trips or a star-shaped group of circular routes around your home base? That in turn will determine the scale of the relief you'll be looking at even closer, as well as the scale of the maps you'll want.
Leaving it at central Italy which is all I really know about, less traveled roads will be easiest to find in the Abruzzo and the Marche, hardest in Tuscany. Umbria has been getting fashionable these last 5-10 years, and now unfortunately lies in between, but there's still plenty of quiet roads (most of the northern third of Umbria, much of the Orvietano, most of the very beautiful area E of Spoleto: the Valnerina and the area around Norcia).
End of October is usually very nice, especially for a sportsperson. Not much rain, but definitely cooler. I've spent three whole Octobers in central Italy and all were as close to perfect as one might wish.
Picturesque, towns, car rides, all of that should be your second-tier considerations, mostly because at a car scale, almost anywhere in Italy is lovely.
Addendum: I'm looking at my copy of L'Italia in Bicicletta, by Peter Warz and Alessandro Brutti, published by Mursia (Milan, 1991), 270pp., which I recommend depending on what kind of cycling zackly you're going to be doing.
Subtitled "40 itinerari di una settimana, oltre 15.000 chilometri e 250 tappe, attraverso le regioni italiane"; which sums it up nicely. They've gone and laid out for you 40 one-week stages thruout Italy, giving you distances, road directions, and (most importantly) profiles. No tourist-type info, which you would get from more mainstream guides: but this isn't one of those awful hiker-type books which drag you thru the most desolate, isolated, dull places they can find; on the contrary they're well-crafted itineraries taking you thru both varied landscape and bike-scenery, and pretty towns, countryside abbeys, etc. and the stages are designed around a sensible cultural/geographical theme, so that your travels have some unity to them.
Their Ancona-Cattolica stage #21, for example, takes you from Ancona inland to Gubbio via Osimo, Jesi, Staffolo, the beautiful Byzantine church at S. Vittore alle Chiuse; then back out up the Flaminia thru Pontericcioli, Cantiano, Cagli (faves on this board, and certainly with me), then to Urbino and the end of the trail.
In Italian of course, but the maps are universal, and once you have a few words like Tappa (stage), ripido (steep), etc. you have it licked; which I bet you already do if you watched any of the Giro this year.
I love cycling. You'll have a great time. I go cycling often, but don't know that I'll be of much help. I don't pick routes based on nice towns to visit ecc, I just go where I can put my bike on the train and day trip from Rome, which usually ends up being (very) southern Tuscany or Northern Lazio. I’ve done some in southern/eastern Lazio and wouldn’t recommend it, too much development and not much to see. I just go there because my husband’s family house is there.
I've never followed any guide books. I just have detailed maps and pick a route. I find secondary roads to always be picturesque. I have to disagree with Bill though, I’ve cycled in Tuscany many times and as long as you don’t go near the beach during the summer and stay away from larger towns/cities, there is never much traffic on secondary roads.
We stayed in Le Marche near Monte Conero a couple of summers ago. I didn’t have my bike with me, but we went for runs on country roads and it was beautiful. I was thinking that would be a great place to cycle, nice rolling hills.
October is usually a great month in central Italy, cool temperatures and not much rain. But I don’t think the word "usually" can be applied to weather anymore!
Are you bringing your bikes? Tell us more about the type of terrain you're looking for.
I’m really envious! (and I just got back from a 10 day cycling trip in Austria) Have a great trip!
btw - most regional (slow) trains now accept bikes. You buy a ticket for your bike (can't remember the price but just a few Euro) which is good for 24 hours, so you can use it for a round trip. The trains (usually) have a special car for bikes at one end or the other (invariably the opposite end from where you are standing). Sometimes these "special" cars are just empty wagons with no way fo securing your bike.
This is really a convenient way to get to a point where you want to cycle if you don't want to use a car. You could also use if to get back to your car if you're not doing a loop.
I'll be doing it later today!
A site on cycling that I've often come across but never really read is the Trento Bike Pages. This is their page on Italy. The site is run by the Mathematics Department of the University of Trento. It might have some useful information for you.
Happy Steph (who just bought a new bike yesterday!!!)
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bill Thayer: Addendum: I'm looking at my copy of L'Italia in Bicicletta, by Peter Warz and Alessandro Brutti, published by Mursia (Milan, 1991), 270pp., which I recommend depending on what kind of cycling zackly you're going to be doing.
Bill, thanks for the info. We're thinking of Tuscany since we like hills and the weather sounds good. I'll look for the book you recommended. Carlie
Posts: 9 | Location: santa fe, nm, usa | Registered: 03 August 2003
Steph, what kind of bike did you get? And where to you cycle in Austria?
We're bringing road bikes and are sorting out transport now. We've only done trips commercial bike trips in Europe so we're a little unsure about how best to get ourselves and our bikes around. I think we'll fly into Florence and stay at an airport hotel with the idea of leaving our bike cases til we return. We have a rack that should fit on the back of a rental car to get our bikes from Florence to our house rental.
Do you really ride around Rome? Carlie
Posts: 9 | Location: santa fe, nm, usa | Registered: 03 August 2003
Where will you be staying.. in Chianti? I don't ride but there are great hills!!! you may want to contact my friend Marco of Cicloposse, he has a biking company and I think can also arrange your rides for you with maps and all the info you need.. Their site Tell them I sent you!!
The only advice I can offer is be carefull on the shipping of your bikes to Italy. I had man on my tour about a month or two ago, whose bike was impounded at customs in northern Italy. He had shipped a new $3,000 bike. They were giving him alot of trouble about it, they wanted hundreds in taxes. Supposedly, he ended up telling them the customs form had a typo. The decimal point was misplaced. It was actually a $300 bike. Not sure if it ever worked, or what happen in the end. But, check all option for shipping and cover your back.
Tony Polzer Tour Operator 3 Millennia Tours www.threemillennia.com tony@threemillennia.com
Posts: 1206 | Location: Santa Marinella (Rome), Italy; Zagreb, Croatia | Registered: 12 February 2003
We did a cycling tour in Tuscany two years ago with Vermont Bicycle Tours. We had a wonderful time, although some of the hills were tough. I would avoid grades much over 10%. Remember that all the towns are at the tops of hills. We and we had a sag wagon to bail us out if we could not make it, and though we had to walk a few times, we mostly made it. The traffic going into Sienna was awful, but most of the other towns were OK.
If you want to go into the churches or eat in nicer places, toss some real shoes and a jumper into your panniers. Some of the riders missed the cathedrals because they were improperly dressed.
We took an old tandem; we had it shipped to avoid schlepping it on the train. It was supposed to be delivered to our hotel in Florence, but it was impounded in customs in Bologna. We had to pay over $1000 to get it out. This was the price of the bike in 1982! We did not get the money back.
Bikes are supposed to fly free on international flights, but the airlines vary wildly in how they treat bikes. We flew home with the bike without a hitch, although it was pre 9/11.
quote: Steph, what kind of bike did you get? And where to you cycle in Austria?
Carlie, I really wish you hadn’t asked this question I am sure to get a lot of grief for this – but I bought an American bike. I am always going on about how people should buy locally. Anyway – it is a Marin Larkspur and I love it! It’s a great bike. I am currently just outside of Rome and have been going cycling every day.
quote: Do you really ride around Rome?
Not anymore. Just to get to the train station to get out of Rome. Actually last week my husband and I went out for a midnight bike ride. We went through Villa Borghese – it was at least 5 degrees cooler. And during late July August, there isn't much traffic. But we don’t do this very often. It was the day I bought my new bike.
In the early nineties I went everywhere by bike for about 1.5 years and lived to tell about it. It was a 15km ride (one way) to work everyday in Rome’s traffic. Thinking back on it, I was nuts! I eventually stopped because of the smog more than the traffic.
Carlie, we shipped the Tandem via DHL. This was because we flew into Zurich and did not want to deal with the bike on the train.
We had no trouble flying home with the bike; it was boxed up in a custom fiber-board box. Bike boxes and sacks are available--check with your bike dealer or check the bike travel website above.
Our new bike is a Santana. We will be taking it to California in a few weeks for the maiden airline trip. We have not taken it apart yet and put it in the suitcases.
Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France on a Trek, and Alessandro Petacchi rode an American bike, I think a Cannondale in the Giro.
Talk to the airline about their policies. If you are changing from a domestic flight to an international flight, be prepared to pay the $75 per bike. You may not have to, but you never know. Don't worry about customs if the bike is on the plane with you.
Posts: 10 | Location: New Orleans, LA USA | Registered: 15 June 2003
My husband and I were outside of Lucca for a month in late May/early June. He brought his road bike from the US and rode it at least every other day - had the time of his life. He found the hills quite challenging - he could pick and choose from maps the difficulty he was looking for. We had no problems checking the bike with our luggage in the bike suitcase. They never charged us, although they could have - $100 for each leg. BTW - Italian drivers seem to be much more polite to cyclists than US ones. Also, Italian are particular about their cycling outfits - they always match and often color coordinate with their bikes - just in case you want to fit in.
Posts: 156 | Location: Cool, CA | Registered: 17 February 2003
NP is exactly right about the Italian drivers. In places where an American driver would run you off the road, they swoop by without raising your hair. Even the trucks are genteel, and the roads are narrow.
We rode from Montaione to San Gimigiano and back. The next day we rode from Montiaone to Colle Val d'Elsa and back. We took a bus ride to Monte Oliveto and rode to our hotel Villa Lecche (near Staggia). From Villa Lecche, we rode to Sienna with a ride home. Then we rode from Villa Lecche to Pienza, which I recall as a particularly nice ride. The last day was a long hot ride around the area called Crete. Riders were running out of water and crumping on the hills.
My husband bought a very detailed map in Florence, a "Carta turistica e dei sentieri." He got it at the English bookstore. Ours is for Chianti, and it shows every dirt road with elelvations. We did a some riding on gravel roads, and it is not too bad. (Gravel is very common as filler here in New Orleans.) There are multiple routes to every village, and hubby says he saw maps for other areas.
One thing I would take if I went again: a water bottle with a filter for bacteria. That way, you can fill your bottle anywhere and not worry about giardia and other pests.
Happy peddling
Posts: 10 | Location: New Orleans, LA USA | Registered: 15 June 2003
Topic Closed
I am sure to get a lot of grief for this – but I bought an American bike. I am always going on about how people should buy locally. Anyway – it is a Marin Larkspur and I love it! It’s a great bike. I am currently just outside of Rome and have been going cycling every day.
