In our experience, Italy is mostly wonderful for cycling. I was nearly put off\nby a thread in the forum on here.....but it just wasn't substantiated.\nEveryone and their Grandma rides a bike (or has ridden one in the past). Bikes\ncan go pretty much wherever they like (and they do, especially in towns!).\nTraffic gives you a wide berth, and even the trucks WAIT if there isn't space\nto pass. There are LOTS of cycle paths, although in some places more than\nothers, and not always amazing quality. But still, cycle paths!! Just be\nmindful that they may be gravel. Usually they are fine, but sometimes we had\nto push - mountain bikes with less luggage would be fine (although we aren't\nparticularly heavily loaded).
\nThe main note of caution is that things can be less fun in very built up\nareas. Our main experience of this was riding around the southern end of the\nlakes. We had a couple of days when the bike path we tried to follow was just\ntoo gravelly, so we went onto the road.....and it was no fun at all. Note that\nI do not mean we felt unsafe. It was busy and noisy, with lots of big\ntrucks.....but the traffic still gave us room. I'd suggest looking on a map\nand avoiding the really heavily populated areas (we didn't do this, and were\nsurprised by the Lakes - don't be fooled into thinking this is a tranquil\nregion - you need to plan carefully...... Nearly everywhere else we rode was\nfine, and perhaps had made us a bit blasé. On the subject of planning, have a\nlook at this excellent site which we used extensively:
\nhttps://italy-cycling-guide.info
The one tricky point for us was the lack of campsites. There are plenty of\ncourse, but they are very much concentrated in certain areas. Bear this in\nmind before planning your route, if you want to camp. We did wild camp but\nonly once. Campsites aren't particularly cheap, and have been very busy until\nrecently. They often don't have loo roll, and usually have some squat toilets.\nAs with everywhere, I'd recommend avoiding peak season (unlike us!) Note that\nschool holidays here are early June until mid-Sept.....although August is the\nreal peak. We didn't book any campsites and only encountered one place that\nwas full - in Cortina d'Ampezzo which is tourist central in the Dolomites, and\nhad two other options right next door! There is usually wifi, which usually\nisn't very good....
\nFood is wonderful of course, and pretty cheap. Pizzas can be found for as\nlittle as 5 euros. We mostly self catered which is possible to do VERY\ncheaply, if you're happy to exist on tomatoes, pasta, bread and mozarella! We\noften stopped for coffees and croissants (called brioches here, try the crema)\nwhich was a very affordable treat.
\nMy main (and possibly only?) irritation with Italy is the incredible lack of\npublic toilets! What does everyone do??? You pretty much have to go into a\nbar. Public toilets seem to be restricted to tourist hotspots and big stations\n(note they often do not have them at small stations, really!) and then you\nwill usually have to pay up to a euro! Come on Italy, sort it out!
\nHere's our route. It's all on Strava and I will add links to each page in due\ncourse. I need to go through this whole journal and add photos at some point\ntoo - maybe back at home with reliable wifi!
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