Road cycling Italy

Not road, but I can highly recommend the strada bianchi in Tuscany if you fancy some gravel. A great way to see the countryside away from the close passing drivers of Italy.

This book is quite useful.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=100+greatest+climbs+italy&crid=155G6D4NP0CIM&sprefix=100+greatest+cl%2Caps%2C176&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_4_15

If he lives near Venice then you could easily plan a nice route into Slovenia and back through Austria 

Nice one all great shouts!

Hired a bike when we stayed in Monte san Savino in Tuscany and I loved it. Lots of quiet roads and the motorists I did encounter were very respectful.
Beautiful countryside with countless cafes and coffee stops.

Tuscany is great cycling country - L’Eroica is a permanently marked route, mixing road and gravel and is a couple of hours drive from Florence down to Siena. Plenty of Castello and vineyards to ride through, sampling the produce. One of my best ever cycling memories, descending a ribbon of smooth tarmac from Montelcino and picking out the route as it zig-zagged over the rolling hills.

Yes Dovebiker! That’s what I’m wanting to hear!

another vote for classic Tuscany, cliched as it may be it's amazing, the roads are amazing and the hilltop villages are out of a postcard and the ones you haven't heard of are usually nicer than the ones you have, you can easily do the strada bianchi on a road bike, i've seen old ladies ride to the shops on it, it's not really gravel 🙂

if you want quite and less touristy then Umbria next door is also lovely and if you want even quieter and a lot more hilly then the Garfagnana in northern Tuscany is a hidden gem

I was hoping the gear this. I suspect we will base ourselves in or around Siena and do 100km each day.

Plan is to meander through the hills and sample the food and wine en route. Cannot wait!

So it looks like we have decided on Tuscany and probably in or around Siena. Question is do we book central for bars etc. Or out in the hills for peace and chill? Or should we consider any other areas?

I suppose gut thoughts are being close to bars and places to eat in an evening.

Thanks again

Some great gravel riding around Tuscany.

https://www.instagram.com/tuscanygravel?igsh=Z2ZhMjBpNHlocnZh

The L’Eroica route skirts the outskirts of Siena at its northern point, but the terrain tends to get hillier as you head south. Accommodation wise, depends on your budget - first time, we stayed in a small caravan park in Siena which had its own pizza restaurant on-site and a supermarket down the road. Another time stayed a hill-top villa with pool and amazing views - reached by a 5km unmade road with 20% pitches which was murder at the end of a day.

Riding around the Italian lakes looked good to me. We saw loads of riders doing just that and the traffic was very well behaved around them. Contrast this to Florida where people really didn't seem to know what to make of a bicycle - massively dangerous.

I stayed in Siena for the Strade Bianche sportive (and race) a few years ago. Siena has a huge city wall and if you'll have a car don't stay inside the wall. But you do want to be close enough that you can walk in of an evening, it's an amazing city to explore and eat in. We stayed in an Airbnb just a couple of minutes' walk from one of the city gates and that worked well (there was a great deli just down the road). Personally, I wouldn't stay further out.

Also, I think there might be restrictions about taking your bike into the old bit of Siena. The woman on the campsite outside town told me I'd have to park my bike at a communal bike park before I went in. Don't know whether that's right or not.

I wild camped around Tuscany, but there were lots of agriturismos in some very nice spots along the gravel roads. Going from one to the other of those would make a great trip.

Corroded - would you recommended the AirBnB you stayed at? If so, would you mind sending me a link for it? We're planning to be over there later in the year.

I would take the comment about the Strade Bianche not being 'gravel' with a pinch of salt. We did a couple of rides out of Siena in October and one of the the gravel sections was so rippled (like a beach at low tide), it shook the bottle from my cage, and I lost a bottle cage bolt. And I was on 650b x 47mm tyres. That said, we did enjoy it. Check if your proposed rides coincide with major events. The Eroica was on, and the some gravel sections were closed to all except participants (we were blocked from the first one south of Siena (later ones weren’t as well policed). Komoot did a reasonable job of route planning and suggesting points of interest (eg there’s a sculpture park out in the vineyards to the east). Also I think the Eroica website has a number of routes available for download.

We’ve stayed in central Siena a few times, and love it for the wandering around at night. But I can definitely see the attraction of an agriturismo in the hills (stayed in one to the NW, listening to the boar in the forest in the evening).

Thanks all. I’d also be interested in that Air bnb link please.

Sorry, looks like Gianni’s place in Siena has been switched off since 2019. It was just outside Porta Pispini. Bound to be other bike-friendly places. I’d just stay within walking distance of the city centre. Parking is difficult generally I recall.
Also, the white roads are very definitely gravel! A lot of people rode them on road bikes but I was happy and faster on gravel bike with 38c tyres.

re parking and bikes in Siena. You can cycle in most of Siena, except eg the Piazza del Campo, but some of the streets will simply be too busy (pedestrians not cars). The bike restriction for us was that there was nowhere to store them - luckily we had our van in the free parking at Porta Laterina only 5 mins from the apartment, so kept them there. Driving in Siena is fun - you get a window to drop off luggage - all one way systems and peds not expecting cars. Parking isn’t cheap, and we were v lucky to get a free spot the day we arrived. I know Hotel Athena (also Porta Laterina) advertises itself as having bike facilities and I assume some others on/near the walls probably do.

We’re are looking to do some of the white gravel roads of course. Will normal road tyres be ok?

The pros manage.

But for mere mortals, thicker it's better.

What's the best way of getting to Siena with bikes? Fly to Florence and hire car? Or is there a transfer service that would take bikes?

We flew to Pisa and rented a car (which got scraped in Siena - off-street parking is preferable). I don't know of any shuttles.

The white roads Id call “easy gravel”. You can manage with normal road tyres fine even in the bumpier sections. Although if it’s wet (and I did the Strada Bianche sportive in torrential rain) the white road substrate is a bike wrecker.

Sienna is lovely to visit.

Flew to Pisa and rental car down to Siena. Worth a detour through Voltera - ancient hilltop town carved from rock - bit of a sketch driving though the streets and you’ll find out why Fiat still make tiny cars

I’m flying into Pisa and luckily my mate lives there so we have a car. We’ve got an Airbnb walking distance to Siena centre.

Any tips on routes? Fancy doing the Strade Bianchi route and also out to Montepulciano.

Any must visit towns in the area? We’re there five days and have a car so don’t mind driving a bit to start at a different point.

Thanks again

Montepulciano

Nice wines.

Get komoot. It's pretty popular in Italy and as such you'll get a shed ton of recommendations.

My mate lives near Venice

Venice is a bloody long way from Pisa.... 🤔

San Gimignano and Volterra are obvious POIs.

Val di Cecina isn't far from Siena and is classic Tuscany.. Rolling countryside, Cyprus trees, wineries....

If you had your big bike with you I would suggest Massa Marittima and Tirli or Monte Amiata. That's where I'm heading in the next few weeks.

Venice is a bloody long way from Pisa

He likes driving!

Expensive hobby in Italy....!

Anyone got any good places to eat or even a vineyard to visit?

We've got booked up for September. A week in La Villa hotel in Siena and then 3 nights in an out of town place near Montalcino. Can't wait.

We liked the Boccon del Prete,  via San Pietro - always welcoming, and the food has been consistently good when we’ve been. Spada Forte on the Campo.  There are bars around the Campo which will do you some free aperitivi with drinks in the early evening which will tide you over until dinner - in nice weather its a lovely place to sit. The San Paolo pub has a balcony overlooking the Piazza and they’ve also been friendly - not eaten there.