So I’m stuck in bed with a sprained ankle after I fell down the stairs and whilst I contemplate doing a lot of billing before month end I thought I’d share my cycle plans for next year. This year is still on schedule with Saint Malo to Nimes booked and Zell am See to Budapest pencilled in.
I’m thinking of doing the Italian Adriatic coast next May. Venice to Brindisi over a fortnight.
https://www.cicloturismo.net/adriatic-b ... -di-leuca/
https://cycle.travel/map/journey/297455
https://www.biroto.eu/en/cycle-route/it ... rt00001869
I’ve already done part of the eastern Adriatic coast in Italy so I’ll start at Venice airport and go via Treviso as Conrad has previously recommended and Padua because I want to see it and I’ll revisit part of the Po delta although going North to South instead of west to east. I was worried it might be a slightly urban boring trip but the various guides I have (mostly Bradts series which cover Abruzzo and Marche and Emilia Romagna ) suggest that although there will be a fair few coastal resorts it’s anything but cookie cutter. It will be much more of an urban trip than a countryside one though I think. I realise there is some very beautiful Italian countryside but my previous Italian trip was one of the most memorable I’ve done not for the countryside along the Po (it’s was nice but not spectacular) but for the stunning cities and towns along the way.
Previous experience of cycling in Italy makes me sceptical of the road surfaces (very rough lumpy gravel being my least favourites) and width of the roads and just generally not being set up as favourably as say France. I am not expecting a signposted or especially bike friendly route. On the positives I love Italy, there’s plenty of affordable accommodation in May, gelato, I get to practice my Italian and it’s good for me to explore new places. Should be warm but not hot and fingers crossed I don’t get weather like last years giro d’italia.
So any advice or experience very welcome. Especially on road quality - do I just end up talking a gravel bike and putting some wide tyres on it or as this one is coastal will it be more wide boulevards?
I will likely go inland a few times - there’s a bus to urbino and a train to Ascoli Piceno. I’m really looking forward to seeing Puglia although I probably won’t have time to go onto the Gargano peninsula I hope to have a day trip to Lecce after I finish in Brindisi. BA fly into Venice several times a day (plus so does everyone else depending on my departure point) so I might get a Friday evening flight and a taxi to a hotel 10/20km away from the airport and BA fly back from Brindisi as do easyJet and I think Ryan air.
Photos from the Italian tourist site. I’ve just realised I might see a bit of the men’s Giro d’Italia.