In the end of March this year I went bikepacking in Italy. I wanted to go on a holiday before starting my new job at SWM and I always wanted to spend a holiday just travelling by bike, so this was the perfect time to do it.
I started from Bologna because there is a direct train from Munich to Bologna (and you cannot transport bikes on night trains).
Day 1: Bologna towards Florence
From Bologna I started going straight south. So pretty soon I went up into the mountains which cannot be avoided if you want to go south from here. Up there it was more windy and cool than I had hoped so I tried to get as far as possible that day, but the 2.000 meters in altitude that day really did a number on me (I had not been on my bike much the months before) and so I stayed in a BnB in the Florence area that night.
Day 2: Further south towards Montepulciano
The next day I went further south, leaving the mountains behind after some time. For a part of the day I went along a european long distance cycling route, which meant there were quite a few gravel roads or smaller normal roads that were mostly connected and highlighted by signs. It was not all bike-only roads, but at least no bigger roads with trucks speeding past you were part of the track.
Day 3: Past Lago Trasimeno to Gubbio
On the next day I went east, first to Lago Trasimeno and then up into the mountains towards Gubbio. Gubbio is a really beatiful city with lots of historical buildings, but I admit I had never heard of this city before. Going up and enjoying the view over Lago Trasimeno was really beautiful to start the day. As this was a sunday, lots of road bikers were on the road, it seems this area is popular for hobby cyclists and sports clubs for training.
Day 4: From the mountains to the sea
From Gubbio I went east. This was probably my favourite part of the tour, as you leave the city behind and quite soon are in a beautiful mountain scenery, on roads where you see maybe one car every half hour because it is so remote. Also, apart from a few ascents, this day was going downhill way more than uphill which was also a nice change. And seeing mountains scenery and beaches and the sea in a single day is quite a nice contrast. The only downside is that the beaches on the eastern coast are visited by huge amounts of tourists every year, so the cities there are mostly collections of hotels which were also mostly empty in March. Compared to Gubbio and the small towns of Tuscany, this area therefore has less to offer when it comes to sightseeing and just enjoying the view while biking through the landscape.
Day 5: San Marino
Going north along the coast it seemed like the obvious thing to do to make the detour to San Marino. The small microstate is set beautifully in the hills, but that also means going uphill and downhill on quite steep roads. But it is definitely worth it, the views are simply amazing. I went back towards the sea simply because there was an affordable accomodation there, the area around San Marino is quite expensive otherwise.
Day 6: Heading towards Bologna
On the second to last day, I was going in the direction of Bologna. There were some nice gravel paths but otherwise that day was not very spectacular.
Day 7: Return to Bologna
On the last day I just went back to Bologna. Around the city the traffic is getting a lot thicker so I just took a direct route back to my hostel. Also, after seven days on the bike, I was getting a bit tired and just wanted to spend some time in Bologna exploring it by foot so I just took the shortest route and called it a day.
Conclusion
I really liked biking in Italy. The scenery, especially in Tuscany, is amazing, the time of year (end of March) was just right, although a few weeks later would also have been ok so the weather would be a bit warmer. The biking routes were mostly all right, sometimes you need to use big roads with heavy traffic but it was rare. The mode of travelling which was to just start in some direction in the morning and then decide during lunch how far I would want to go that day also worked great for me. It was a nice experience not planning everything in advance but trying to be a bit more spontaneous. All in all, I can highly recommed bikepacking in Italy :).
GPS tracks
All GPS tracks can be found on Komoot here.
Thoughts on the 'Last generation'