Rome to Home 2015

[wintonbina]

I'm intending to do a ride from Rome to Home (Bournemouth via Le Havre or Cherbourg) in 2015 over 2 weeks starting at Rome Airport.
Has anyone done anything similar and if so could you give me any tips on the routes and any no no's please?
I'm expecting to do it supported & with a mixture of camping & B&B's.
Many thanks,
Tony

 

[Chris Norton]

Thought about warmshowers rather than B and B's?
Could meet up with some like minded continentals and get to know the route that way.

 

[bof]

Have you looked into the Via Francigena? This is the old pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome, so via the Calais Ferry I loosely followed it three years ago on a fast tour from London to Northern Italy, staying in hotels. Included the Grand St Bernard pass which was fine on the bike - some websites give the impression its cycling hell - that's the Col de Montgenevre which takes heavy lorry traffic. You could take it up to Burgundy and then go along the Seine (roughly) to Le Havre, going through, or avoiding Paris, to taste.

 

[andym]

I'm not sure where to start.

Most of Italy is either mountainous or very hilly. Going through Lazio and Toscana you can be easily doing 1000 metres of climbing for every 50 kms on the road. Don't underestimate what you might be taking on. Two weeks? Hmm..

There are two main routes you can do:

- follow the coast. Much less climbing and more places to camp;

- inland through Toscana and Lazio to Pisa and then through Liguria and Piemonte. This is much more interesting but more demanding. (From Pisa onward I'd recommend following the Moncenisio variant of the Bicitalia Ciclovia dei Pellegrini (Eurovelo 5).

One of the key things you need to decide is where to cross the Alps. Montgenèvre is a definite possibility but there are others - they all have their pluses and minuses.

The Via Francigena has lots of stretches on dirt roads. I think it's probably best done lightly-loaded with a pilgrm's credential and staying in pilgrims' hostels.

My website www.italy-cycling-guide.info has comprehensive information about campsites and hostels in Piemonte, Liguria, Toscana and Lazio. I'm also planning to include lots of information about routes to Rome over the Autumn/Winter (I'm posting this from a campsite high in the hills north of Lucca in Toscana).

I'd be happy to comment if you want to post details of your route when you have had the chance to do some planning.

 

[wintonbina]

Thank you for the replies. As stated it's early doors at the moment & we do know that there will be a few hills but it should be within our capabilities as long as we put the hard miles in over the coming year! (We did LeJoG & 3 Peaks challenge in 11days a while ago so want to up the ante!)
So onwards & upwards (especially upwards!) and I will put some rough route ideas on here soon.
Thanks again, Tony

 

[bof]

The Via Francigena has lots of stretches on dirt roads. I think it's probably best done lightly-loaded with a pilgrm's credential and staying in pilgrims' hostels.
.

Just to clarify, use it as a loose guide for a decent route. Some of the morden route is designed for horse riding, on some stages between the old pilgrim stops the original pilgrim route is now a motorway!

 

[briantrumpet]

I did Paris to Rome this year, if it's any help - you can work out most of the route from the blog p2r2013.blogspot.com - the route over the Alps we did (Col du Mont Cenis) was superb (we only went that way as the Galibier was still under 15ft of snow, in June). There were a few less pleasant bits (e.g. the roads in Lazio are in a shocking state, especially after the dreamy Tuscany roads) and watch out for Italian tunnels - some don't allow bikes, and some that do suddenly lose all their lighting. But overall a good route, even if the stretch of the Med we went along was mostly dull, dull, dull.

 

[wintonbina]

I did Paris to Rome this year, if it's any help - you can work out most of the route from the blog p2r2013.blogspot.com - the route over the Alps we did (Col du Mont Cenis) was superb (we only went that way as the Galibier was still under 15ft of snow, in June). There were a few less pleasant bits (e.g. the roads in Lazio are in a shocking state, especially after the dreamy Tuscany roads) and watch out for Italian tunnels - some don't allow bikes, and some that do suddenly lose all their lighting. But overall a good route, even if the stretch of the Med we went along was mostly dull, dull, dull.

Hi Brian, Thank you for your link to the blog (I will read it during this week). How do you find out which tunnels you can/cannot cycle through?
Cheers,
Tony

 

[briantrumpet]

How do you find out which tunnels you can/cannot cycle through?

We found out when we got to each one. There are signs telling you which you can't go through, and occasionally an initially signposted diversion for cyclists, though the signs might run out, so check your map.

One tunnel (alluded to above) was one of the scariest things any of us have ended up doing. Entered downhill tunnel, back lights flashing, didn't look very long, reasonably decent tunnel lights. Halfway though, it was as if someone had just switched out all the lights - in fact, of course, there was a section of the tunnel where the lights were out, but not one of the six of us saw it coming, and for about 10-15 seconds the ONLY thing any of us could see was the occasional headlight of a car coming in the opposite direction. We couldn't see the road, the tunnel wall, the kerb, the light at the end of the tunnel, just car lights coming towards us. So we just pointed our bikes slightly to the right of the car lights and hoped. We didn't dare slow down too much as there were cars behind, but their lights seemed not to illuminate our way. My knees were shaking by the time I reached daylight, and the first thing we all did was to count the others to make sure we'd all emerged.

So, in brief, be warned. You can't avoid tunnels in places, but take care - most of them are fine ... but....

 

[andym]

Just to clarify, use it as a loose guide for a decent route. Some of the morden route is designed for horse riding, on some stages between the old pilgrim stops the original pilgrim route is now a motorway!

I agree and in some ways it's the most scenic/interesting route. The main road from Empoli onwards is the Via Cassia and you can cycle on it - and probably if you use auto-routing software or route-planning software it's the one the software will suggest. It's the most direct option and at some points it's the most practical, but it's by a long way the dullest. My advice would be to avoid it where you can and in particular to climb to Radicofani (the traditional route) rather than taking the tunnel.

On the subject of tunnels, In case anyone gets the wrong impression from Brian's posts: the vast majority of tunnels in Italy (setting aside the open-sided ones and very short ones) are fully lit. I've cycled about 20,000 kms in northern, central and southern Italy and only come across one significant unlit tunnel (to the east of the Lago d'Iseo) which was pretty hellish but very much the exception. (Although I should say that I tend to avoid tunnels and roads with tunnels).

(Brian out of interest, where was this tunnel?).

Very few tunnels are off-limits to bikes (although a fair number of *roads* are off-limits).

Lights are of course a very very good idea.

If you take time to plan your route you should be able to cycle to/from Roma and encounter very, very few tunnels -if any. Indeed you could go from the border with Austria to almost Napoli without meeting a significant tunnel.

Coming through Liguria there's a tunnel in the coast (near a town whose name I can't remember for the moment) that you can't avoid, north of Lucca there's a tunnel that's off-limits to bikes, which you can avoid although there's no signposted alternative. If you're coming from the north-east there's a tunnel (possibly more than one) south of Bologna that you can avoid by going via the Lago di Suviana (following the Ciclopista del Sole bike route).

It's a good idea to get the Touring Club Italiano road maps (or Atlantide) and not rely on Google alone - the TCI maps have useful additional information - eg they show dual carriageways, which are often off-limits to bikes. They also show most tunnels. In particular, avoid if you can, any road with an E number. The OSM maps from velomaps.org are very useful (apart from anything else they show tunnels).

 

[briantrumpet]

On the subject of tunnels, Brian is being a little melodramatic: the vast majority of tunnels in Italy (setting aside the open-sided ones and very short ones) are fully lit. I've cycled about 20,000 kms in northern, central and southern Italy and only come across one significant unlit tunnel (to the east of the Lago d'Iseo) which was pretty hellish but very much the exception. (Although I should say that I tend to avoid tunnels and roads with tunnels).

(Brian out of interest, where was this tunnel?).

Very few tunnels are off-limits to bikes (although a fair number of *roads* are off-limits). Lights are of course a very very good idea.

The tunnel was coming down the hill into La Spezia. It's possible we missed a 'no bikes' sign, but all six of us missed it, if we did. Yes, agreed the other tunnels we went through were fine, but not surprisingly this was the one we remembered most vividly!

 

[andym]

The tunnel was coming down the hill into La Spezia. It's possible we missed a 'no bikes' sign, but all six of us missed it, if we did. Yes, agreed the other tunnels we went through were fine, but not surprisingly this was the one we remembered most vividly!

I don't know whether it's off-limits to bikes, but IIRC it's marked on my TCI map - as is the much nicer 'strada panoramica'. Decent maps are worth the price and the weight.

The Bicitalia Via dei Pellegrini (Moncenisio variant) provides you with an excellent route through Liguria and Piemonte and really is worth checking out.

More generally often tunnels are built as an alternative to an existing road, or as a bypass - so it's always worth asking 'where's the old road?'. This doesn't always work as the old road may have been swept away by a land slide, but it often does work.

Similar thing with 'superstrade' - often the old road is still there and makes for a bike-friendly alternative. Again a good map helps - or if you are using digital mapping then zoom in.

 

[briantrumpet]

I don't know whether it's off-limits to bikes, but IIRC it's marked on my TCI map - as is the much nicer 'strada panoramica'. Decent maps are worth the price and the weight.

100% agree. I wasn't in charge of the planning, so went with the flow. There was one day when I got very grumpy, when the group's GPS was in a strop and wouldn't work, the map we had was wholly inadequate, and the Italian road signs decided to play games with us. Just a quick look at googlemaps suggests that there are perfectly good alternatives to that tunnel.

 

[Mr Bunbury]

Have I done Rome to Home? Yes, here's my crazyguyonabike journal. I took a slightly indirect route: across Italy to Ancona, across the Adriatic then up through Croatia, Slovenia and Austria to Munich, stop for a day to sample the Oktoberfest then across Germany and Holland to Rotterdam after 2 weeks. This was in the autumn last year, it was good fun but a bit chilly towards the end. Everything up to Salzburg was amazing but it got a bit boring after that.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Blue Hills]

Have I done Rome to Home? Yes, here's my crazyguyonabike journal. I took a slightly indirect route: across Italy to Ancona, across the Adriatic then up through Croatia, Slovenia and Austria to Munich, stop for a day to sample the Oktoberfest then across Germany and Holland to Rotterdam after 2 weeks. This was in the autumn last year, it was good fun but a bit chilly towards the end. Everything up to Salzburg was amazing but it got a bit boring after that.

Enjoy your trip!

Looks great - looking forward to reading it in more detail later.

Is there a typo on the names of the Taiwanese folk you met? - one of the names different in text and pic caption.