Is there anywhere more perfect for a bicycle tour than Tuscany?
Riding through the famous rolling green hills, dotted with vineyards, olive groves and cypress trees makes it difficult to imagine that there is.
It’s difficult to imagine when pedalling slowly through yet another atmospheric village.
Or when marvelling at the renaissance art and buildings in a city like Siena.
Yes, Tuscany is the sweet bicycle touring life … the dolce vita on two wheels.
Well … almost … there’s always a but!
Rather than take the direct route to Siena, we decided to swing eastwards to San Gimignano and into the Chianti hills. It proved to be an inspired decision as the next two days were amongst our favourites.
Sunny but unseasonably cool we had the ferociously steep hills to keep us warm.
Chianti had a surprise in store … it’s covered in trees, lots of trees. The canopy of oak and chestnuts are punctuated by olive grove polka dots, stripes of vines and blocks of farmhouses guarded by rectangles of tall poplars … a tapestry in every shade of green.
White ribbons of the famous Strade Bianchi (white roads) are then woven through this tapestry. Made from fine crushed limestone and beautifully groomed in this part of Tuscany, they led us from one hilltop village to the next.
Our favourite stopover was Castellina-in-Chianti, a village with a single narrow street clinging to the ridge of a hill, full of ancient houses, restaurants, gelaterias, delicatessens and wine shops.
Whilst in Chianti it would have been rude not to stop at a vineyard to learn a little about the history of the wine … and, of course, to taste it.
As far back as 1716, Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, decreed that only wine produced in a tiny area around Castellina could use the Chianti label, a state of affairs that happily continued until the 1930’s.
Then the Italian government of Mussolini decided to expand the Chianti region in order to export more wine around the world. Chianti became ubiquitous … cheap, poor quality plonk sold in those squat waxy bottles that were covered in a wicker flask and used as candle holders in every Italian restaurant. Ironically, the straw flask is called a fiasco in Italian.
As far as the winemakers around Castellina were concerned it was indeed a fiasco!
They fought back, launching Chianti Classico with very strict regulations on the grapes, the location of the vineyards, the type of soil and the winemaking techniques. The result was a wine of much higher quality that could be sold at a premium price, labelled with the coveted black rooster to separate it from the rough stuff.
It was easy to tell them apart!
Sadly we could only try a couple of vintages as we still had to pedal to Siena that afternoon.
Siena would be a highlight of any visit to Tuscany.
To make it even more special we happened to be there during one of the short periods each year when the floor of Siena Duomo (Cathedral) is uncovered.
No other building has a floor which matches the scale and artistry of this one. Taking five centuries to complete, fifty six panels of marble mosaic inlay illustrate scenes from the bible but also from Greek and Roman mythology.
It covers the whole floor of the cathedral. The effect is breathtaking!
The crypt of Siena Cathedral is also remarkable. This underground chamber was covered in religious paintings in the second half of 13th century before being abruptly sealed and filled with sand and earth.
Only re-discovered in 1999, those centuries buried underground have preserved the paint perfectly. This means that visitors today still get to experience the bright, vivid colours that the artists originally intended.
The lower part of the paintings are covered in graffiti, scratched into the limestone plaster. This can only be graffiti from people living between the 1280’s when the painting were made and the 1350’s when the crypt was sealed and filled with sand.
It feels as if those people are calling out to us across the centuries … I’m alive. I’m here. I made this mark … look, this is my hand!
As usual with a museum or cathedral, the exit is through a gift shop. But only in an Italian cathedral does a gift shop look quite like this!
So why is Tuscany the dolce vita on two wheels (almost)? What’s the almost? What’s the but?
Well … it’s the roads … they really are as bad as their reputation.
And it’s the drivers. Italians are normally the warmest, friendliest people but put them behind the wheel of a car and they turn into crazy, impatient monsters.
The roads feel like a bumpy obstacle course. As a cyclist, you can’t afford to drop your guard for a second.
At any moment you might have to weave between the cracks. Or swerve to avoid a sudden pothole, or a tree root, or a deep manhole cover, or all manor of debris.
Which is a dangerous game as the roads are also very narrow and you probably have an impatient monster revving up behind you.
To be fair the bigger the vehicle, the more courteous the drivers are. Trucks and vans are fine. What you really have to watch out for are the crazy monsters nipping around in their Fiat 500s!
This means that for a bicycle tourist, Tuscany charms and terrifies in equal measure. We’d love to come back and explore more of the area but perhaps we’ll stick to four wheels next time … maybe hire a Fiat 500 and become crazy monsters too?!
Since leaving Pistoia we’ve often been guided by an ancient pilgrimage route called the Via Francigena. It was an important medieval road for pilgrims travelling to Rome from as far away as Canterbury. Today, it’s still popular as a long distance walking and cycling trail, especially the section that runs through Tuscany.
In turn, the Via Francigena often follows an even older Roman road, the Via Cassia, built to connect Rome to Florence. And the Via Cassia has since been used to plan the route of a major regional road.
For a touring cyclist this means the choice often comes down to a gravel track on the Via Francigena or the busy main road.
Clare hates gravel. Andy hates main roads.
Something had to give!.
After a long climb up to a hilltop village called Radicofani for lunch, it was perhaps not Andy’s best idea to avoid the main road by choosing a long gravel descent down the other side.
This was not the same smooth gravel that Clare had enjoyed in Chianti. Much steeper. A lot bumpier. Very deep in places. Great for mountain bikers, not so great for touring cyclists. Lots of opportunities to skid and slide.
And it lasted 20 kilometres!
Clare was not impressed. I didn’t spend hours struggling up that hill just to come down this ridiculous gravel. It’s so dangerous!
Predictably, about halfway way down there was one skid and slide too many.
Andy promised to take the road next time.
But the next day he pushed his luck even more by trying out a section of the original Via Cassia, still with the paving exactly as it was in Roman times.
It was even slower going but fortunately we both enjoyed the privilege of riding across the same stones that had carried the sandled feet of so many Roman legionaries marching off to yet another war.
There was one last treat in store before reaching Rome … the Bolsena and Bracciano volcanic lakes, both very pleasant escapes from the rough and tumble of the city.
We even enjoyed Lake Bolsena so much that we stayed an extra night.
This meant that despite Rome being our destination, despite pedalling over 2500 kilometres to get there, we ended up spending just one day in the eternal city.
As well as the lake we had simply enjoyed Italy and especially Tuscany too much, slowing down, eating up the days we’d planned for Rome.
It proves yet again what Clare is always telling Andy … that a bicycle tour is about the journey, not the destination. Plus this was our third visit to the eternal city.
Getting into Rome gave us one final challenge, and it wasn’t only to dodge the crowds at the Colosseum.
Knowing that the Roman drivers are at yet another level of craziness to the rest of Italy, we decided the best way to enter the city would be along the River Tiber cycle path.
To get to it we had to cross the Veio Regional Park first, famous for its Etruscan ruins and slightly infamous for controversially reintroducing three packs of wolves into a park that is so close to a major city.
Komoot (our mapping app) guided us into the park on a nice road to start with. But that road became a track and then the track turned into this …
Whilst Andy was wondering how Clare might react, he came face to face with a wild boar just by the water. They stared at each other for a minute before the boar snuffled and quietly went about its business.
That was enough to convince Andy that crossing the muddy stream was a bad idea. The only alternative was a farm track blocked by a roped up gate that displayed this warning sign …
The sign explains to potential visitors that dogs are used to protect the sheep from the wolves. If a dog was to charge at us, we should not throw stones but walk away calmly.
Clare voted with her pedals and quickly headed back to the busy main road.
But Andy convinced her that if he could be Top Dog in Romania last year, he could still be Top Dog here. But even he had to admit … pedalling slowly across the field and up the hill was pretty nerve wracking. Fortunately the sheep and the dogs were in another field that day.
From the top of the hill it was a lovely cycle down to the river on some nice country roads and an even better ride along the best cycle path we’ve come across in Italy, all the way along the river and right into the heart of the city.
But once we reached the centre of Rome, we couldn’t escape. We were trapped on the Tiber by some very steep steps.
So we just kept going and going and going … until eventually we found some shallower steps.
So how to enjoy just one day in Rome?
First to celebrate completing the 2,541km journey with our bicycles outside the Colosseum!
Then to revisit some old favourites … the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo del Fiore.
Then to enjoy one of the main attractions that we’ve somehow managed to miss in the past and take the senators walk down from the Palatine Hill to the Forum, following in the footsteps of Julius Caesar, Cicero and Augustus.
Then to revisit another old favourite and enjoy a gelato from Gelateria Della Palma, where they bamboozle you with over 150 flavours. No visit to Rome is complete without it.
And finally to do something new by paying our respects to Pope Francis, who died earlier this year, at his final resting place in Santa Maria Maggiore.
Rome has been a pilgrimage destination for centuries, many journeying to the eternal city on the Via Francigena. If all roads lead to Rome, perhaps all bike paths eventually do too.
So it’s a fitting end to this e-bicycle tour through England, France, Switzerland and Italy.
Accept it’s not the end. We still have to get home!
Now, where does the ferry to Barcelona leave from?
Clare and Andy
Bath to Rome
2,541 kilometres pedalled
22,656 metres climbed
135 hours in the saddle
Those of you who love pasta may have been wondering where the pasta porn pictures are? After all, the opportunity to enjoy a mid-bikeride pasta lunch is one of the reasons we rode to Italy in the first place. So don’t worry … we’ve saved the best till last …
Avoiding Potholes 