This was my first trip longer than 5 days, so I figured I'd do a trip report for you.
I started in Augsburg, Germany on a Sunday. A hotel in Rome was pre-booked for 12 days in the future. Originally I had planned to leave on Saturday to give me a possible rest day, but there were some massive issues with the German rail network, so I had to delay for a day, as I had no way to get to Augsburg.
As a route I chose to take Via Claudia Augusta across the alps and then switched to largely EV7 through Italy, until switching to EV5 for the approach to Rome.
I had planned to mostly camp but with the sudden weather change I wasn't really equipped for that anymore, so I ended up only camping twice and stayed in Hotels and Airbnbs for most nights. I usually booked a day in advance and didn't have any trouble finding suitable and fairly cheap places.
Now for the actual route: Via Claudia is absolutely fantastic. It's mostly asphalt, but there's the occasional Gravel path thrown in as well. Signage is amazing and there's basically no way to get lost even without a GPS. This might not be everyone's cup of tea, since there's not much adventure left, but for my first multi week trip, I was very happy with it.
The route seems to be very popular with Ebikers, too. There's a quite a few charging stations and I came across a lot of older couples on cycling holidays, which I personally thought was pretty cool.
I had one very bad weather day, with almost torrential rain. I was freezing basically the entire day since I hadn't really packed for the cold and thought about just taking a train several times. In the end I put on Bill Brysons Walk in Woods audiobook, which got me through my first backpacking trip several years ago now. It was probably a little stupid and quite vain, but I just wanted to be able to say that I cycled to Rome, not that I mostly cycled but took a rest day on a train because the weather was bad.
Luckily the weather improved once I got further south and switched to EV7.
The signage here is also excellent until Bologna, where it just stops completely and you're basically on your own. I followed komoot's EV7 route and it was mostly fine, although getting into and out of major cities tended to be a little dicy. I don't know if this is the official EV7 routing or if komoot was being weird again, but I can't imagine that the roads I was routed on where the best way to get into these cities. (If they were, Italian authorities have a lot of work left to do.)
Cycle paths within the cities were usually excellent and I didn't really have to contend with aggressive Italian drivers because cycle paths are largely physically separated from car lanes.
My favorite part of the trip was definitely Tuscany. I would have liked to spend at least one more day in Florence, but as my hotel in Rome was already booked, I had to leave on schedule. Even better than Florence were Arezzo and Orvieto, though.
While Florence was overrun with tourists, these charming towns were basically empty and even still have locals living within. I spend a night in each town and scheduled my days in a way that would let me arrive as early as possible to do some sightseeing.
The roads between these towns were absolutely fantastic, too. Still mostly paved, but usually routed along little used backroads that give great views of the Tuscan countryside. The area is quite hilly with lots of up and down and you quickly rack up quite a few height meters, but personally I prefer this to completely flat and often boring riverside sections.
The last few days were honestly a bit of a slog, both because the weather got worse again and because the route just want as good anymore. There was a lot of riding on well used roads, potholes and getting passed by cars and trucks far too close for comfort.
In the end I'm very glad I did it, though. It's by far the most physically demanding thing I've ever done and the originally planned rest day would have been very welcome, but I suppose type 2 fun is part if the experience when traveling with your bike.
I'm spending a couple of days in Rome now, before heading back home on a Flixbus. Originally I wanted to take a picture with my bike at the Coloseum but I legitimately feared for my life on the streets of Rome, so I abandoned that idea and ended up beelining to my hotel.
Some stats to finish of:
– cycled 1251 km in 12 days
– climbed a total of 10950 height meters
– 6 1/2 audio books listened to (plus a lot of podcast hours that I didn't count)
– 1 book read
– 1 flat tire just outside Modena thanks to a massive pothole that I didn't pay enough attention to, because I was tired
by Phezh