La Piazza Blog & Stories
Ciclismo Classico’s Top 5 Places to Bike in Italy
Lauren Hefferon, CEO of Ciclismo Classico, has biked all over Europe and extensively in Italy since founding the company 25-years-ago. In fact, after graduating from Cornell University, she earned a Rotary Scholarship to study Art in Florence, where she pedaled 200+ miles a week to familiarize herself with every road within 100 miles. When Lauren returned to The U.S. and noticed that travel companies weren’t offering tours exclusively of Italy, she founded Ciclismo with two 12-day itineraries to Tuscany. Her Italy bike tours have since won National Geographic Traveler œTours of a Lifetime and Outside magazine œTrips of the Year awards, among others. Below is her list of the Top 5 Places to Bike in Italy.
1. Sardinia
West of Italy’s mainland is Sardinia, the second largest island in The Mediterranean, with over 1,000 miles of pristine coastline. The variety of Sardinia’s rustic landscape and folk culture is a bit on the wild side. Indigenous inhabitants have preserved the language, folklore and ethnicity, making modern Sardinia a living museum of rural Mediterranean life. With local guides, Hefferon designed a Sardinia bike tour that offers cycling through spectacular limestone mountains & alongside stunning ocean-side cliffs, scrumptious feasts, and stays at charming seaside hotels and enchanting country inns.
2. Piedmont
Not only does Piedmont offer some of the top roads in all of Europe, but it also has arguably the best food and wine. Ciclismo Classico’s Piedmont cycling tours are food and wine focused tours in which guests stay in family-run luxury hotels, dine at the best local restaurants, and pedal through the vineyards and villages of Piedmont. If eating gourmet four-course dinners every night and not putting on a single pound sounds good, a Piedmont cycling tour is the answer. Guests pedal quiet roads, sip local wine, relax at heavenly villas, and dine in some of Italy’s finest restaurants.
3. Dolomites
Experience dramatic mountain beauty and fairytale towns in the Italian Alps. Ride over exhilarating passes, climb among soaring spires and zoom downhill to charming hamlets surrounded by meadows of wildflowers on mountain routes made famous by the world’s greatest cyclists. These are the legendary climbs that have filled Giro history. Challenge your body while you explore a rich mixture of culture and celebrate a sense of accomplishment on a bike tour of the Dolomites.
4. Abruzzo
On Ciclismo Classico’s 15-day Giro d’ Italia journey from Northern to Southern Italy, guest will cycle Abruzzo, a region in central Italy whose western border lies less than 50 miles east of Rome. Despite it being more of a central region, it is considered part of Southern Italy, a vestige of its historic association with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Abruzzo is one of the most sparsely populated regions on the Italian peninsula. Always a wild and empty region, since the Second World War it has depopulated further, as people have left the land, and the traditional mainstay of sheep farming, for the cities and for America. Cycling in Abruzzo offers a taste of œunspoiled Italy.
5. Tuscany
No region in Italy displays as marvelous a landscape as Tuscany. Renaissance artists were inspired by this region, which has captivated travelers for centuries. Cycling Tuscany past castle after castle stirs the imagination. Inspired by this dreamy, culturally rich land, we have designed a unique, seven-day learning adventure. Our home base, Il Molinello, is perfectly situated to enjoy a multitude of artistic and panoramic itineraries. It is surrounded by breathtaking views of vineyards, olive groves and distant hill towns. The area is a wonderful blend of rich artistic heritage and varied landscapes that quickly change from lush valleys to terraced foothills to Apennine ridges covered with forests and pastoral meadows.
Check out our tour calendar for a list of scheduled trips
Tour Calendar
1. Sardinia
West of Italy’s mainland is Sardinia, the second largest island in The Mediterranean, with over 1,000 miles of pristine coastline. The variety of Sardinia’s rustic landscape and folk culture is a bit on the wild side. Indigenous inhabitants have preserved the language, folklore and ethnicity, making modern Sardinia a living museum of rural Mediterranean life. With local guides, Hefferon designed a Sardinia bike tour that offers cycling through spectacular limestone mountains & alongside stunning ocean-side cliffs, scrumptious feasts, and stays at charming seaside hotels and enchanting country inns.
2. Piedmont
Not only does Piedmont offer some of the top roads in all of Europe, but it also has arguably the best food and wine. Ciclismo Classico’s Piedmont cycling tours are food and wine focused tours in which guests stay in family-run luxury hotels, dine at the best local restaurants, and pedal through the vineyards and villages of Piedmont. If eating gourmet four-course dinners every night and not putting on a single pound sounds good, a Piedmont cycling tour is the answer. Guests pedal quiet roads, sip local wine, relax at heavenly villas, and dine in some of Italy’s finest restaurants.
3. Dolomites
Experience dramatic mountain beauty and fairytale towns in the Italian Alps. Ride over exhilarating passes, climb among soaring spires and zoom downhill to charming hamlets surrounded by meadows of wildflowers on mountain routes made famous by the world’s greatest cyclists. These are the legendary climbs that have filled Giro history. Challenge your body while you explore a rich mixture of culture and celebrate a sense of accomplishment on a bike tour of the Dolomites.
4. Abruzzo
On Ciclismo Classico’s 15-day Giro d’ Italia journey from Northern to Southern Italy, guest will cycle Abruzzo, a region in central Italy whose western border lies less than 50 miles east of Rome. Despite it being more of a central region, it is considered part of Southern Italy, a vestige of its historic association with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Abruzzo is one of the most sparsely populated regions on the Italian peninsula. Always a wild and empty region, since the Second World War it has depopulated further, as people have left the land, and the traditional mainstay of sheep farming, for the cities and for America. Cycling in Abruzzo offers a taste of œunspoiled Italy.
5. Tuscany
No region in Italy displays as marvelous a landscape as Tuscany. Renaissance artists were inspired by this region, which has captivated travelers for centuries. Cycling Tuscany past castle after castle stirs the imagination. Inspired by this dreamy, culturally rich land, we have designed a unique, seven-day learning adventure. Our home base, Il Molinello, is perfectly situated to enjoy a multitude of artistic and panoramic itineraries. It is surrounded by breathtaking views of vineyards, olive groves and distant hill towns. The area is a wonderful blend of rich artistic heritage and varied landscapes that quickly change from lush valleys to terraced foothills to Apennine ridges covered with forests and pastoral meadows.
Check out our tour calendar for a list of scheduled trips
Tour Calendar