Italy: summary and route

In our experience, Italy is mostly wonderful for cycling. I was nearly put off by a thread in the forum on here.....but it just wasn't substantiated. Everyone and their Grandma rides a bike (or has ridden one in the past). Bikes can go pretty much wherever they like (and they do, especially in towns!). Traffic gives you a wide berth, and even the trucks WAIT if there isn't space to pass. There are LOTS of cycle paths, although in some places more than others, and not always amazing quality. But still, cycle paths!! Just be mindful that they may be gravel. Usually they are fine, but sometimes we had to push - mountain bikes with less luggage would be fine (although we aren't particularly heavily loaded).

The main note of caution is that things can be less fun in very built up areas. Our main experience of this was riding around the southern end of the lakes. We had a couple of days when the bike path we tried to follow was just too gravelly, so we went onto the road.....and it was no fun at all. Note that I do not mean we felt unsafe. It was busy and noisy, with lots of big trucks.....but the traffic still gave us room. I'd suggest looking on a map and avoiding the really heavily populated areas (we didn't do this, and were surprised by the Lakes - don't be fooled into thinking this is a tranquil region - you need to plan carefully...... Nearly everywhere else we rode was fine, and perhaps had made us a bit blasé. On the subject of planning, have a look at this excellent site which we used extensively:
https://italy-cycling-guide.info

The one tricky point for us was the lack of campsites. There are plenty of course, but they are very much concentrated in certain areas. Bear this in mind before planning your route, if you want to camp. We did wild camp but only once. Campsites aren't particularly cheap, and have been very busy until recently. They often don't have loo roll, and usually have some squat toilets. As with everywhere, I'd recommend avoiding peak season (unlike us!) Note that school holidays here are early June until mid-Sept.....although August is the real peak. We didn't book any campsites and only encountered one place that was full - in Cortina d'Ampezzo which is tourist central in the Dolomites, and had two other options right next door! There is usually wifi, which usually isn't very good....

Food is wonderful of course, and pretty cheap. Pizzas can be found for as little as 5 euros. We mostly self catered which is possible to do VERY cheaply, if you're happy to exist on tomatoes, pasta, bread and mozarella! We often stopped for coffees and croissants (called brioches here, try the crema) which was a very affordable treat.

My main (and possibly only?) irritation with Italy is the incredible lack of public toilets! What does everyone do??? You pretty much have to go into a bar. Public toilets seem to be restricted to tourist hotspots and big stations (note they often do not have them at small stations, really!) and then you will usually have to pay up to a euro! Come on Italy, sort it out!

Here's our route. It's all on Strava and I will add links to each page in due course. I need to go through this whole journal and add photos at some point too - maybe back at home with reliable wifi!