cycling to Italy

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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linda Edge
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Joined: 11 Mar 2015, 1:44pm

cycling to Italy

Post by linda Edge »

Hi,
Am hoping to do a long distance cycle from Ayrshire Scotland to Lucca in the north of Italy for charity. Any advice/help as to what would be the best route to take would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Linda
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jamesgilbert
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by jamesgilbert »

It's only partially complete, but the EV5 route might give you some inspiration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EV5_Via_Romea_Francigena
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honesty
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by honesty »

Dont know how helpful this will be as its information obtained from driving to Italy for 30 odd years but it could give you a bit of guidance.

There are a number of passes through the Alps. We've personally always driven over the Alps rather than using the tunnels as its nicer (and my parents were cheapskates). We've used the Mont Cenis (Frejus) pass, Grand St. Bernard, Simplon, Gotthard, and Brenner pass (and maybe one or 2 in between, but these are the main ones). Of these I'd say everything but the St Bernard and Frejus are probably too far east for getting to Lucca. Theres a few further west and south in France that I have not experienced, of which the Col Agnel looks nice. My favourite though is the Frejus one, really lovely and generally quite road as most of the traffic is going through the tunnel. saying that the Simplon and Grand St. Bernard are good for the same reason, but the roads of all these passes can be busy leading up to them.

My parents developed a route through France that missed out on most of the toll roads and stuck to good quiet A roads. We'd go from Calais to Reims on the motorway then A roads following the river Marne to Chalons, St Dizier, Joinville, Chaumont, Langres, then across country to Grey, Besancon, Pontarlier, and across Switzerland to the St. Bernard pass. The coincidentally follows the route of Via Francigena pilgrimige route (ish) and there is now a cycle route the length of the Marne.
nirakaro
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by nirakaro »

The route Honesty suggests is certainly the shortest, as it follows the Via Francigena, set up when the only way to get there was to walk. I cycled it a few years ago, and it’s a nice enough ride, if perhaps not the most interesting bit of France. The Simplon pass is a delight, the Great St Bernard less so: great when you’re heading home, but it’s a big climb, not open until mid-June, and the north side ascent looks like a nightmare – bad surface, narrow lanes, steep climb, in a gallery, no shoulder (that’s before you reach the tunnel, obviously – above there it’s great).
You might also consider a more westerly route through France (e.g. Dieppe – Paris (through or around!) – Dijon – Rhone valley – Grenoble) then the Frejus as Honesty suggests. Or go over the Lautaret to Briancon, then the pretty, quiet, low col de l’Echelle to Turin. The Agnel is a big beast at over 2700m, highest international road in Europe.
Another possibility – which I’m hoping to do next month – is to go all the way up the Rhine, then into Italy over the St Gotthard, or the Spluga pass (I did that one a couple of years ago, ride of a lifetime!). Still quite a straight line to Lucca.
Once you’re over the Alps, northern Italy’s flat as a pancake. But don’t underestimate the Apennines; They’re not so high, but you’re starting from lower down, so the passes can be just as big as in the Alps. The Cisa pass is a nice ride, if you avoid weekends, when it’s a popular run for motorbikes. The Abetone from Modena is a good bit higher, a reasonably gentle climb IIRC (I did it the other way), and brings you straight down into Lucca. Where you can get a very nice breakfast.
I wonder if Ayrshire to a ferry port will be the hardest bit to find a pleasant route?
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honesty
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by honesty »

Its not Provence or anything but it is pretty, and Langres for example is a really lovely walled town.

On the Italian side as said the north in flat and the Apennines can be very steep. Lucca though should be reachable by heading across Piedmonte and hugging the coast from Genova all the way round to Lucca. This gives the added benefit of going past or through the Portofino peninsula and Cinque Terre
nirakaro
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by nirakaro »

Tell us more about Liguria? I’ve avoided it in the past because I’d imagined it – the minor roads at least – to be very hilly. And horribly touristy around the Cinque Terre. Is it not? (Might suit me to head there this year…).
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Sweep
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by Sweep »

Just to clarify folks, is the frejus completely without tunnels/galleries?

From all i have read above it does sound rather cycle touring friendly - not too busy, not a lot of lorries.

Am looking for a good way to Turin.
Sweep
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honesty
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by honesty »

I cant remember any, but the main road from Modane to Lanslebourg can be silly busy last time I did in in the car. I think though there are smaller roads up the valley that you can use to skip this. It does have a particular attractive road down on the Italian side.
Lio
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by Lio »

Hi Linda
I did Glasgow -Barga 7 years ago. At that time the Rosyth-Zeebrugge ferry was still on. So I cycled to Rosyth. I went down through Belgium into Luxembourg then France across to Strasbourg then down to Basel. I took a detour across to Zurich to meet up with Rico who did the stretch from there to Barga with me. We crossed over the Gottardo and then went across to Piacenza and crossed over the appenino at Borgo Taro taking us to Aulla. We then came up the hill to Castelnuovo - Castelvecchio - Barga.
I can let you know more details of the exact route I took. There were some good cycle track sections - for example a long stretch going to Strasbourg and then also a long stretch in Italy taking the navigli around Milan.
When are you thinking of doing it?

Lio (Moscardini)
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Sweep
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by Sweep »

Oo
Barga
Italian fish and chips
Are they good.
Did you go to the sagra/festa?
Sweep
MartinP
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by MartinP »

Have to disagree on a few points: I cycled to Naples 6 years ago and to Imperia 2 years ago, both times over the St. Bernard pass. It's only steepish for the last 5 kms up to the top and the gallery section is not a big deal; there is a hard shoulder and with rear lights on no problem. The noise of passing cars is worse than their proximity. It's half a day from Martigny to Aosta. Liguria from the north through Cuneo and south to the coast is fine. Easy gradients and much better than the other way round. If you go from Turin to Alexandria to Genoa again it's fine but a challenging climb near Ricco if you are following the coast around towards Sarzana.
kawa9999
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by kawa9999 »

Hi,
we passed twice the Appenini last year.
One was was basically Parma to Aulla (near La Spezia), passo cisa. Very nice, but I suggest you to take the smaller road via felino calestano berceto, it hast almost no traffic and is very very nice. From Berceto on you can take the SR62 up to the pass.
The other we did was Genova to Piacenza. here there are a lot of tunnels between Passo Scoffera to genova.
So we did take the "old road" which was the one being used before they built the big new one. Again almost free of traffic, very very nice and very nice scenery.
That is from genova - you follow the Bisagno river upstream, but just after Struppa, you get out of the main road and head toward davagna. there is a little steep ascent there (depends which way you go) but it is nothing dramatic. Then you follow the road up to passo Scoffera.
From passo scoffera, laccio, cugne, torriglia, costafontana, montebruno, then all the way down to piacenza. This way you will not have almost any tunnel. Road is also very nice. You basically follow SP62.
We got both suggestions from locel cyclist and local people.

Manuel
andymiller
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Re: cycling to Italy

Post by andymiller »

A belated reply, but it may still be of use.

Just in case anyone gets the wrong end of the stick: there is no Fréjus pass. On the French side the road leading into the tunnel isn't a motorway, but the road leading out of it is a motorway - so this is definitely not a runner.

There is a pass nearby - the Col de Montgenèvre which is an option.

The best bet is probably the Col du Grand Saint Bernard which takes you pass the Lac du Mont Cenis (Moncenisio in Italian).

There are some other possibilities:

- the Colle della Maddelena. Technically part of the road on the French side is off-limits to bikes, but I saw plenty of cyclists going over the pass (although admittedly mostly from Italy to France so possibly the others were nabbed by the gendarmes). This doesn't seem to be enforced and I think it's mainly there in case anyone has a stone fall on their head and they want to sue the French government (pas de chance). It's a lovely road - although there are quite a lot of lorries that use it.

- the Colle del'Angelo is a big climb. On the Italian side there's 10 kilometres with an average gradient of 10 per cent - I think the French side is gentler;

- the Colle della Lombarda via Isola 2000 looks like it might be a nice crossing point - but it's quite along way south.

The Ciclovia Val di Susa will take you to Rivoli, and from there it's only a short way to pick up the Moncenisio variant of the Ciclovia Francigena the cycling version of the via Francigena. This goes via the Passo della Scoffera and then heads for the Liguria coast. It does go to the Cinque Terre - although you can take the SS1 Via Aurelia from Sestri Levante to La Spezia - for most of the way it's so quiet you'll see more cyclists than cars. Be careful as you descend into La Spezia: be sure to avoid the tunnel.

The alternative to this option is to follow the Po towards Piacenza and then head over the Apennines via the Passo della Cisa.

Going through the Garfagnana be aware that there's a section of the SS12 into Lucca (starting a little further on from Borgo a Mozzano) that's off limits to bikes: follow the signs for Ponte a Moriano and then the quiet roads into Lucca (or there's a cycleway along the Serchio).

There's some more information about the different routes through Piemonte here:

http://italy-cycling-guide.info/piemont ... n-valleys/

and some more about the different versions of the Ciclovia Francigena (eurovelo 5) here:

http://italy-cycling-guide.info/cyclewa ... urovelo-5/
Italy Cycling Guide - a resource for cycle touring in Italy.
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