Cycling in Italy, Dolomites 23 Jun - 08 Jul 2006

We cycled from Villach, Austria to Bolzano, Italy. The roads are rather steep and the temperature high but that is widely compensated by the best sceneries we have ever seen!

Transport

We took a 2 person cabin the SparNight Express from Amsterdam to Villach (via Munchen), very comfortable(!). From Bolzano we returned with Local trains to Munchen and got on the Sparnight express back to Amsterdam. All trains had a special bicycle carriage or location. It was not possible to use the intercity from Bolzano to Munchen, we had to use local trains which gave us a beautiful scenery but a rather long trip.

The Roads

The roads are fine, good asphalt. We took some minor road where the asphalt stopped and turned into gravel. The average roads we cycled had a 8% gradient with a maximum of 18%. this was rather steep, especially in combination with 32C! Groups of German motorcycles have the habit to accelerate when they come around the corners by fully opening the throttle... you just can't die in peace on a lonely slope.

Food & Drinks

Water is not a problem on the road, every village has a local pump or supermarket. Good local wines (not cheap), try many good goat cheeese and lots of pasta! Nice tapas places can be found in Bolzano.

Accommodation

Sufficient camping's can be found, wild camping is aloud but difficult to find a good spot. Also we prefer the very hygienic showers with thermo tap. The camping's itself are not the ones you want to spend three weeks on with your children..., but for day trippers its fine. Don't find it strange that your small tent need to be placed in between those large campers less then 2 meters away.

The Climate

Warm - very warm on the day nice temperatures during the night. The heat in combination with the steep hills is not very comfortable we regularly had to stop to cool down. Every day we had one hour of rain, similar to tropical showers... just wait till its finished. The rain came in every day an hour earlier.

The Photo's