Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

Cycling is seen as more of a sport than a way of getting around in much of Italy, but as well as racing clubs on the move you’ll see mountain bikes, touring cycles full with panniers, and people of all ages on shopping bikes, often with a toddler balanced on the cross-bar. Italians in small towns and villages are welcoming to cyclists, and hotels and hostels will take your cycle in overnight for safekeeping. Although there’s usually a good cycle shop in most small towns, tyres and wheels for touring bikes (700mm x 28 or 30mm) are hard to come by. On the islands, in the mountains, in major resorts and larger cities it’s usually doable to rent a bike, but generally facilities for this are few and far between. In the UK, the Cyclists’ Touring Club (Cotterell House, 69 Meadrow, Godalming, Surrey GU7 3HS; tel 01483/417 217) can wage members with advice and help on planning a tour.An alternative is to tour by motorbike , though again there are relatively few places to rent one. Mopeds and scooters , on the other hand, are relatively cushy to find: everyone in Italy, from kids to grannies, rides one of these, and, although they’re not really built for any kind of long-distance travel, for shooting around towns and islands they’re ideal. We’ve detailed outlets in the text; roughly speaking you should expect to pay up to £50,000/25.82 a day for a machine. Crash helmets are compulsory, though in the south at least it’s a law that seems to be largely ignored.

Tags: cotterell, crash helmets, cross bar, cyclists touring club, godalming surrey, grannies, hostels, italians, long distance travel, machine crash, major resorts, mopeds, motorbike, mountain bikes, panniers, racing clubs, safekeeping, scooters, touring bikes, tyres