Coast to Coast: Cinque Terre to Venice

Day One
We left our friend Dina Tuesday morning as our paths split, with us heading to Venice on our bikes and Dina taking a train to Lake Garda for the week. We were immediately greeted with some of the steep roads leading away from the ocean and through the mountains surrounding Cinque Terre. After a few kilometers of climbing, we made our way through a couple of tunnels and emerged from the final one overlooking La Spezia.

La Spezia

We descended down into the city losing all of the elevation that we had gained while climbing and made our way through the city. Like many of the cities that we have seen in northern Italy, La Spezia was very bicycle friendly with lots of bike paths and people riding. After leaving the city, we got on a road following a river that wound its way through the mountains, sparing us some of the climbing found on other nearby roads. In one of the small towns along the river, we noticed a group of people lounging on the dried riverbed as if it were the local beach, so we decided to get some food from the supermarket and make ourselves some sandwiches by the water.

Riverside Lunch

Afterwards, we continued to follow the water and enjoying the views despite the lack of elevation change on our route. Even though things were relatively flat up until this point, we knew from looking at the topo map earlier that we would be ascending to around 1000 meters at some point. What we didn’t realize at the time was that all 1000 meters would come at once.

About to ride into the clouds

Around five that afternoon, we began a climb that left the river behind us as we made our way upward over the mountain. We continued to climb for the next 15 kilometers or so (roughly 9 miles for those of you that don’t want to convert) which took us a couple of hours. By the end of the climb, we were at the highest point on our route, Passo della Cisa, at 1041 meters above sea level.

Matt climbing through a switchback

It was getting late and we were worn out from the climb, so we found a nice flat spot near the summit to cook our dinner and pitch the tent for the night. There wasn’t much cover from the road, but the traffic was scarce enough that no one would notice us during the night. We are not sure of our total climbing for the day, but since we started at sea level and ended at over 1000 meters, we knew it had been a solid day of riding.

Roadside camp site

Day Two
We packed our things from camping in the morning and started the ride out with a 200 meter descent, which is a great way to wake yourself up in the morning. We rode along through the rolling hills for another 20 kms or so before finally descending back down near sea level. This descent was a ton of fun not only because of the fast winding curves, but also because we knew that the mountains were behind us and it would be easy flatland riding all of the way to Venice.

The road descending

Shortly after things flattened out, we made our way into Parma. The road into the city was a bit busy, but once in the actual city there were tons of bike paths and we didn’t have to ride on the actual road until we left the city limits. We also found a nice quiet park where we could sit and cook some lunch. After eating, we left Parma and spent the rest of the day riding through quiet farmland while making our may to Mantova.

The view through the farmland

We made it to Mantova near the end of the day and decided to find some internet to look for a place to stay. We found an unsecured wifi network and began looking for campgrounds, only to find that there was nothing in the area. We did find a listing for a hostel, but a visit to the address showed that it must not exist because it was no where to be found. We finally decided to try our luck at finding a quiet spot out of sight at one of the waterfront parks.

Mantova from across the river

We rode along the river in Mantova and stopped to fill up water, but there was no tree cover where we would be able to camp. We did notice that the other side of the river looked more promising, so we crossed the bridge over the river to check it out. Once there, the woods were not as thick as we were hoping, but we found a spot that was sufficiently out of view and pitched our tent. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes in this area were absolutely terrible and swarmed all over us. We had to throw the tent up as quickly as possible and get in to avoid being eaten alive. Matt was able to layer up clothing and put on his bug net which made things manageable enough to retrieve a change of clothes and our food bag, but the bugs were too bad to tolerate cooking an actual dinner. We sat inside the tent eating cheese sandwiches while the mosquitoes stared us down from the outside, like we were the main stars in a zombie movie. Needless to say, it wasn’t our best night.

Day Three
We woke in the morning and scrambled to get our things packed as quickly as possible in order to avoid the wrath of the mosquitoes. Once ready to ride, we decided to go back into Mantova to fill up on water and check the internet before leaving town. While doing some research on the web, the battery in our laptop died and we were forced to wander around the downtown area looking for a power source that we could use. In the mornings, downtown Mantova is transformed into a giant market, and the large number of people and street vendors made it difficult to find what we needed. Eventually, we spotted a row of shops that all had outlets outside that we might could use, even though the shops were not open yet.

Andrew began messing with one of the boxes surrounding an outlet trying to open it and get the power source when a couple of ladies came up and started saying something in Italian. We couldn’t really understand, but they got the point across that we couldn’t use that outlet, so we started to move on. It turns out that these two ladies were the owners of the watch store that we were trying to get power from, and they were coming to open the store, which meant using the outlet we wanted for their outdoor display case. A few minutes after they arrived, they called us back over and told us that we could use one of the outlets inside of the store to recharge. We were very grateful and left the computer on top of their outdoor display case while waiting outside for the computer to charge.

The watch store where we charged up our computer

After a few minutes of waiting, the store owners called us back into the store with another surprise. They had ordered us croissants and coffee which they had delivered to the store so we could have some breakfast while we waited. The food was delicious and we tried our best to convey the details of our trip using our limited Italian and proficient hand gestures.

The generous store owners

Once on the road, we continued to ride the flats through more farmland. In one of the small towns we rode through, we passed a bike shop that we thought might be able to service Andrew’s hub and fix the freewheel slipping problem. We talked to the mechanic, using another office employee to translate, but after a half hour of trying they could not figure out how to get the Chris Kind hub disassembled. To their credit, they did try their hardest and even printed out directions from the internet, but still couldn’t figure it out since they had never worked on that brand before.

Andrew considering a new bike to buy

After giving up at the shop, our ride continued on and was fairly uneventful. We passed through more small towns and before we knew it, it was getting time to set up camp. With all of the flat farmland, it was difficult to find a suitable free camping spot, so when we saw a sign for a campground we turned off of the main road to try and find it. A couple of kilometers later, their was no sign of the campground and we were doubting its existence. We pulled over to ask a local who was out tending her garden if she knew of the campground and she didn’t know where it was. After talking with her and her husband, we asked about maybe camping on some of the nearby farmland. She went to make a phone call and came back a few minutes later to get her own bike and show us to a good spot.

Our new friend, Maria

She led us down a dirt road past corn and grape crops to a nice quiet spot. At one point, we passed an old run down barn and thought that we might be staying there.

The barn

However, we passed the barn and continued on to some more cropland where we stopped and were told that we could camp anywhere we wished in the area. We found a nice flat spot between the corn and grapes, and settled in for the night.

Matt cooking dinner

Our main day to day diet, our knife in a jar of Nutella (croissants not shown)

Day Four
We started our fourth day only 40km or so from our campground near Venice, so we knew it would be a short day. We loaded up and vacated our campsite and began riding along. We passed a few more small towns before making our final turn onto the road where we would be staying. The last 10km of the day began to feel a lot like Venice, with the road following a canal filled with tour boats headed towards the city. By noon, we had arrived at our destination with a coast to coast tour behind us, ready to settle in and go see Venice

Cinque Terre

We arrived in Cinque Terre Saturday evening without a place to stay so the first thing we did was try to find lodging. We were fortunate enough to find a small apartment to rent for the evening in the village where we got off of the train, Vernazza. We got settled in and made some dinner before heading out to see the town. After a short time climbing on the rocks that lined the seashore, we got on the hiking path out of town to get a view from above. We climbed stair after stair until we came across a bar overlooking the village just before the ticket checkpoint on the hiking path. It appeared that this would be the highest that we could get without paying for a Cinque Terre card for the day (which gives you access to the hiking trails connecting the 5 villages), so we took a seat at the bar and enjoyed a drink while soaking in the beauty of the area.

Vernazza

The next day, we were scheduled to check out of our apartment and move our things to a more affordable hostel in the southernmost village of Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore. After dropping off our bags, we walked around town and decided to hit the beach for the afternoon. Unfortunately, Riomaggoire’s beach was all rock with no sand, so we purchased another train ticket and headed to the northernmost village of Monterosso. While Monterosso has much more sandy beach area than the rest of Cinque Terre, much of it was considered private and required payment to sit on the sand. We opted to go to the free beach, which was a small segment of sand at the end of the beach. We found some space amongst all of the other beach goers and spent several hours relaxing in the sun with an occasional trip to take a dip in the ocean.

Walking through Cinque Terre

With our legs rested, we woke up Monday ready to hike. Since we were staying in the southern most village, we decided to try to head north and hike to each of the other four towns. The first trail to Manarolo was fairly flat and easy, which made it pass quickly with plenty of stops for photos.

The hiking trail

The main trail connecting Manarolo and the next town, Corniligia, was closed due to mudslides, so we had to take an alternate route. Instead of following the coast, we headed inland and began climbing to pass over the mountain ridge that separated the two villages. Although this climbing made the hiking more difficult, it was well worth the effort for the views of the coast from the higher elevation. After the climb, we followed the ridge for a little ways before descending down to Corniglia. We had worked up a good appetite on this hike, so after exploring the town some we decided to get a couple of sandwiches before continuing the hike.

Hiking to Corniglia

Once fed, we restarted our hike headed to Vernazza, where we spent our first night in Cinque Terre. We were back to following the shoreline, although the terrain is mountainous enough that we were still doing a decent amount of climbing and descending. Before long, we were coming into town and passing by the places on the trail that we recognized from our first night of exploring. Even from above, we could tell that the beach at Vernazza was going to be really nice after a long hike, so we scrapped our plans to hike the final trail to Monterosso and hit the beach.

Enjoying Vernazza’s beach

The beach in Vernazza is much smaller and rockier than the one in Monterosso, but it is also less crowded and free, which make it much more pleasant. We found a nice spot on the rocks by the water to sit and rest before jumping in and taking a swim. We continued to swim and hang out in the sun another couple of hours before taking a train back to Riomaggiore to get cleaned up. Once back, we got some dinner and spent our last night enjoying Cinque Terre, knowing that in the morning we would be back on the road.

Florence

We cleared out of our campsite in Strada on Friday morning and finished up the last 10 km of riding into Florence. We headed to Piazza de Signori where we had plans to meet our friend Dina from Raleigh. She has been in Italy for a separate trip and we decided that we should all get together while we are here. Once we met up with Dina and her friend Sarah, we spent most of the afternoon wandering around the city lost. We started out looking for a post office for Dina to ship some things back to the States, then for the meetup spot for Sarah to rejoin her tour, then for the bus to pick up Dina’s luggage, and finally for our hotel. None of these were easy to find and the hotel was especially difficult since it was on a street that was not on any of our maps.

Lost

By the time we had everything figured out, it was already five and too late to go back into the city. We walked to the supermarket to get some things for dinner, and spent the night on the back patio of the hotel eating and sharing stories of our adventures in Italy. We kept talking about going out and doing something, but the only thing we could motivate ourselves to do was head down the street for some gelato.

Dinner on the hotel patio

The next morning we fueled up on croissants and juice at the hotel breakfast before hitting the city to see the sights that we missed while lost the previous day. Our first stop was the Duomo, which is absolutely stunning from the exterior, but we skipped the interior tour due to long lines.

Matt and Andrew in front of Duomo

We then made our way back to Piazza de Signora to see the replica Statue of David, among other sculptures, and kept going down to Ponte Vecchio which is the only remaining original bridge into Florence since the others were all burned during WWII. The bridge is lined with shops selling gold and silver jewelry.

Ponte Vecchio

From there, we made one last stop at the Bargello museum to take in some art. The museum consisted mostly of sculptures from the 15th to 16th centuries and even included a couple of Michelangelo’s works. From the museum we split up, with Dina and Matt going to some shops while Andrew took his bike to a bike shop that he spotted earlier in the day hoping to get his freehub fixed. The employees at the shop didn’t speak much English and refused to work on the bike, only saying the name and location of another shop in town. Since our time in Florence was running short, there was no time to visit another shop. We regrouped at the hotel to pack and check out. Once packed, Dina caught a cab and the guys rode their bikes to the train station where we got back together and booked tickets to Cinque Terre.

Our bikes loaded on the train

Rome to Florence: Day 4

We woke up from the Ostelia in Siena on Thursday and went into town to tour until around noon. Check out was at 10am but we were able to store our bags behind a bookshelf at the hostel until we were ready to leave town. Our first stop was at the Bianchi bike shop to see if we could get Andrew’s freehub regreased to stop the slipping issues. It was difficult to convey our issue since we don’t speak Italian, but we were able to describe the problem to the mechanic. Unfortunately, he was not familiar with Chris King products and insisted on using an aerosol oil to lubricate the freehub instead of grease. Even so, his work did help a lot although the problem is not completely solved. After leaving the shop, we spent a couple of hours riding around the town and seeing the typical tourists sights of Siena.

See the sights

Matt in Siena

Once on the road, our legs felt stronger and a good nights sleep helped us push through the continuous rolling hills. We stopped in a small town just outside of Siena to pick up some sauce for our pasta for lunch where we met up with two Dutch riders who started from their hometown and were heading to Rome where their wives would pick them up in just a few days where their freedom would end. They gave some encouragement for us to ride through the Alps at least once during our trip since we were telling them that we were considering a train for the tougher parts.

The Dutch Tourers

After each of the long climbs on our route, we were rewarded with descents down very long windy roads at about 50 km/hr keeping up with most of the traffic. These made the climbs worth all the effort.

We made it to Strada In Chianti, about 10km south of Florence,but it was too late to make it to the next town and find a proper campground so we decided to set up camp near town in a local wooded area. We dropped off some things and cooked dinner back in the park and refilled our water and cleaned up at the fountain. Many towns in Italy have public water fountains where the locals fill up their drinking water, Rome in particular had many fountains throughout the city.

We decided to treat ourselves with some gelato, we asked some locals where to find some in town, it was one of two buisnesses (a café was the other) still open at 9pm. After we finished, we headed back to the woods where we set up camp and called it a night.

One of the views on the road to Florence

Rome to Florence: Day 3

Our third morning of touring started with breakfast beside the pizzeria, and then goodbye to our new Malaysian friends. They headed south towards Rome and we set out north for Siena. Just a few kilometers into our ride we passed the border out of Lazio and into Tuscany, which is every bit as beautiful as its reputation suggests. The hills were noticeably smaller than the previous days with no major climbs, but many small rollers. This made for easier riding and a higher pace for our ride.

A castle in the distance

One small setback came in the form of a mechanical issue with Andrew’s bike. Dirt has made it’s way into the freehub and is causing the freehub  body to not engage properly when pedaling. If this had happened a month ago when we were still in the States, it would be a very small problem, but in the middle of Italy it has been very difficult to find a bike shop that speaks enough English to explain the issue and have the work done. Although annoying, the hub still works well enough for us to ride, so we continued on.

As we moved further north, we began to notice more and more cyclists on the road. In the first couple of days, we were surprised to see very few other riders but as we found out ourselves Tuscany is a great area to ride through and also is evident by the increasing number of other riders.

Entering Siena

We made  our way to Siena in good time and reached the city around 4:00. We found some free internet on the side of the street in downtown Siena and sat down to check up on things among the medieval architecture that the city is known for. We decided to get a room at a hostel for the night and rode down to get checked in and cleaned up. After much needed showers, we walked back towards the city in search of dinner. We stopped at at a Spanish themed bar which featured an all you can eat buffet of Spanish cuisine and Sangria for only 5 euros, we didn’t hesitate. There were also dancers out front and lots of music, since the bar was celebrating some Spanish holiday that we were not familiar with. Regardless, we enjoyed the buffet food and sangria with those that did know what the celebration was for before heading back to the hostel.

On the way home we swung by our wi fi area and saw some locals pointing and staring in the sky at a lunar eclipse. An unexpected lunar elcipse in Italy made our night. We called it an early night and got a much needed nights sleep in an actual bed.

For details on our day three route, click here.

Rome to Florence: Day 2

After our early morning rooster wake up call, we packed our things and  stopped at the pizzeria where we had dinner the previous night to use the free wifi and picnic tables while we ate our breakfast.

Once we were finished, we hit the road again and made our way to Vertralla. We spotted a pharmacy to pick up some vasaline to ease the pressure on our seats and found a local bike shop so we decided to stop in and see what was inside. The owner was very nice and even spoke a little English, so we were able to chat for a little bit while we looked around. The shop was little strange since it looked just like an American shop, just with foreign brands that we never heard of.

Vetralla Bike Shop

After we were done at the shop, we set of for the next town on our route, Viterbo. Viterbo is a larger city and required some unexpected navigation on our part. At one point, we followed the signs to Siena thinking that it would keep us on our route, only to find out that we were headed towards a high speed 4 lane highway. High speed is used loosely since Italians seem to drive as fast as possible everywhere, the police don’t enforce the speed limits. We quickly decided to backtrack and made our way back to the wrong turn and were able to find the correct road. Once in the city, we once again found ourselves unsure of our route. At this point, we were getting frustrated and decided the best solution would be to stop and eat. After a quick lunch we wandered around the city trying to find our way towards Siena. We made a few more wrong turns, but did make it out of the city shortly thereafter.

Cyclist heading through downtown Viterbo

Matt riding on the far right, approaching a small Medieval Town

After we found the correct road, we started to climb up to another lake, Lago di Bolsena. We had a fast descent down near the lake level but did not see the shoreline until the northern side of the lake, where we stopped for a few sandwiches and to relax for a little while. We changed out of our cycling gear and into beach clothes, then found a spot in the sand where we could lay down. We ended up falling asleep to make up for the early wake up and after about an hour of rest, got back into our riding gear and left town. The food and rest were a big help and we started to tick of the kilometers quickly. We then discussed where we should camp for the night, and both agreed that we should go for another hour or so before stopping just before dusk. Shortly after, we stopped outside of a pizzeria to see if there was wifi, when we noticed two tents set up beside the building as well as some bikes. The riders of the bikes came over and introduced themselves, saying that they were from Malaysia and on a tour from Paris to Rome. They had stopped a little earlier and asked the owner of the pizzeria if there were any good camping spots nearby, and he offered to let them camp at his restaurant. We were excited about the company so we tried to ask the owner if we could join them, and although he didn’t speak any English, we got the message across and he was friendly enough to let us stay. We ordered some pasta and beer and joined our new Malaysian friends for dinner where we picked their brains about bike touring and the riding that they have done, which we will be doing later on. After dinner, we all headed back to our tents and called it a night.

Our pizzeria campground

Matt with our Malaysian friends

For details on our day two route, click here.

Rome to Florence: Day 1

Our first day of actual bike touring began with saying ciao to Andrea who was a huge help giving us a place to stay and guidance on how to be safe since he lived in the states and understood what we didn’t know.

After carrying our bikes and gear down the 7 flights of stairs we said bye to Mike, an older Nigerian internet café owner who let us use the internet for free since free wi-fi is scarce in Italy.

Andrew with our new friend Mike

We managed to leave the city with little trouble and after 2 or so hours found ourselves in the stereotypical Italian landscape of rolling hills and endless farmland. We had 2 major climbs which were tiresome but the descent down to Lake Bracciona made it all worth the climb. We decided to take a small detour from the planned route to try the East side of the lake which seemed nicer from a glance on the map. We pulled into this small beach town and sat and ate lunch which consisted of cherries and nutella spread on bread.

Our lakeside lunch.

Matt taking a break by the lake.

Leaving the lake took twice as long as we originally thought since we underestimated the size of the lake looking at our maps. Shortly after leaving the lake the second large climb approached with some great scenery. The country side has some humor, you will find many pizzerias and ristorantes and the occasional UK pub or even an American texas style restaurant.

With our day ending soon we needed food, a place to stay, and hopefully some internet. We wandered through Sutri which was made up of more auto repair shops than any other store and decided to push towards the next town in hopes to find something better.

Capranica came quickly, we made a quick stop at a gravesite where tombs were carved in the side of the rockside .

A small pizzeria and café across from a castle seemed promising, we found that there was internet and great cheap food.

Day one dinner.

We spent a little too much time eating and it was too late to continue to ride so we were forced to camp right near the pizzeria. We rode up this hill near the pizzeria which we thought was a park but turned out to be a gated cemetery. We then set up camp behind the castle in the woods and planned to wake up early and leave before we would be spotted since it was still fairly close to the public. Unbenounced to us there was a chicken pen near by with roosters, which provided a 5 AM wake up call.

Our bed the first night……just kidding

Since we have never toured before, our first day was a big learning experience, especially since we are in a foreign country. We realized that towing all of our gear is much more difficult than we anticipated, which is slowing our pace down. We also found out that the roads in Italy are very narrow, with virtually no shoulder for us to ride on. Fortunately, the drivers here are very considerate towards cyclists, and give plenty of room when passing. It is unfortunate that we can not expect this kind of behavior back to the States with us.

For more details on our day one route, click here.

Rome, Italy

Arriving at the airport with our very oversized luggage, Andrew and I reassembled all of our bikes and gear outside in the street of the airport. Our one downfall was not packing a 10 cent valve adapter to allow us to inflate our tires enough to ride, since the pump we brought only works with schrader style valves.

Ready to build the bikes.

We decided to head into town by bus (6 Euro) and walk until we reached our destination, which was the house of a cycling enthusiast and couchsurfing host, Sem. We were hoping that he could help us inflate our tires, assuming we did not find a bike shop to help us before we arrived at his place.

The bus dropped us off downtown but unfortunately not as close as we thought we would get to Sem’s house. Walking these bikes with all of our gear was very difficult but we managed for several hours. The map we found at the airport was difficult to read so Andrew then snaped a few pictures of a city map inside of a metro station with his camera This was marginally easier. We passed by the Triumph Arch and the Colosseum without a lot of time to appreciate them but they are all amazing. I was not expecting all of the structures and sights of Ancient Rome to be so closely surrounded by the day to day city life.

We spotted a sign for a vespa/bike rental shop which brings hope that maybe they can help us with our with our poorly inflated tires. We continue to head towards our destination with using a compass and maps that we can match up with occasionally, hoping to pass by this bike rental shop. Even they struggle to find the adapter but fill up our tires enough to get us on the road and riding.

In Rome there are few traffic rules (compared to the states), merging, passing, and navigating through the city is possible by a way of controlled chaos where everyone weaves in and out of “lanes”, with the sidewalks filled with people we have no choice but to join this mess.

As scary as this was it was not as dangerous as it first seemed since everyone is aware of all the other crazy drivers.

Our friend Andrea met up with us and Sem (couch surfer host), we ate pizza and had a few drinks, another couch surfer Leo from Vienna Austria met up with us for a drink before we put our things at Sem’s house on the 4th floor (5 stories up), the elevators in Rome (and italy as far as I know) are very small. Sem took us to a bar with some live music for what he said was a weekly meeting of couchsurfing members.

Romans Dancing

Sem then took us around the city for a night tour of Rome before heading home.. As fantastic as Rome is by day it is even better at night.

Nightime views of The Colloseum, Altare della Patria (Vittoriano), and The Vatican, respectively

The next day, we left Sem’s house and rode around the city until our friend Andrea finished his work at the local university. He took us back to his apartment and let us rest and shower while he went to a soccer game with his cousins, and then took us to a local pub (Pride Pub) for an authentic Italian pasta dinner and some live music featuring American 50’s music. On Saturday, Andrea took us downtown to see the rest of the typical tourists sites and gave us some background information on the sites that we would have never learned if we were not accompanied by a local. We got some gelato from the most well known place in Rome before heading to the Trastevere zone to meet some of Andrea’s friends.

Sunday was spent organizing and planning for the next leg of our trip, which will begin first thing Monday morning. The current plan is to follow the national cycling route Cyclopista del Sole north from Rome and try to reach Florence later in the week.

Our last Night In Rome, as viewed from Andrea’s balcony