Cycling in Tuscany is great. Good roads, not a lot of traffic(once you're away from Florence and in the countryside). You could go south and discover the Chianti hills through vineyards and the Strade Bianchi gravel roads. I believe the north is a little more moutainous.

The actual worldtour Strade Bianchi race is also in that period. Could be great to go watch the race on a gravel road they pass or the epic finish in Sienna.

In the summer it can be really hot there (especially when climbing) but I did it so should be doable. The time of the year you'll be there, the temperature will be nice for cycling though it could also rain then (which it hardly ever does in the summer).

The wine is great there!!!!

I summer in tuscany annually. Two recommendations for great places to ride. Both outside of florence. Number 1 is Lucca. About 30 minutes or so car drive from florence. Pala (paladino meschi) of chrono bikes knows everyone. He is an extremely nice and will hook you up with rides. He is the predominant reason I go on my trips. Amazing person.

If you go south to siena, look up Francesco Salto of D.F. Bike in siena. He provides rentals to all the tour companies in the area. His shop is not really a shop but if you hook up with him, he can show you all the rides around the siena area. I just met him last year, and he took me on some amazing rides on the white roads of tuscany (gravel).

Both Pala and Francesco can rent you bikes for very reasonable prices. Pala, rents out pinarellos, I believe francesco rents out either Focus or Canyons.

With both of them, tell them Jon from Palo Alto say hi.

Not sure if your accomodations are all set in florence. If not, I would consider basing out of lucca. Much smaller and not as touristy. Florence is a little bit of a mad house. Be sure to check out montepulciano as it is one of my favorite little towns in tuscany. Further south, check out Ristorante Bar Il Bucchero Di Pascale Giuseppe in chiusi. Small homey restaurant, I literally spend an hour to drive down to this little restaurant every trip since I love his food so much. It also helps that he was a regional champion in cycling.

Great information, thanks. We do have our apartment in Florence rented, it's on the south side of the Arno near Palazzo Pitti so I'm hoping it should be slightly less touristy than right in with the cathedrals on the other side. We are only planning to be in Italy about half the time with .5-1 week trips to other countries in western Europe - Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria are on the current list - so we wanted to be near a major train hub. The rental in Florence is relatively inexpensive so we don't mind paying double while we stay other places. We are certainly interested in checking out the smaller towns and it looks like a lot of them are accessible by bus or train from Florence. I'd be willing to rent a car if there is a good enough reason but we were mainly planning to rely on public transportation.

Lucca and Siena as well as a lot of other small towns are close enough that I could ride round trip to them in a day from Florence, or possibly ride one way and train or bus the other. My wife is not a cyclist but I think she would be fine taking a bus or train somewhere and sightseeing for a couple hours while I bike there. Do you have any experience bringing a bike onto trains or buses fully built, not in a case? Oh, and a semi related question, do you have a recommendation for a cell provider? We wouldn't need a ton of data but enough to look up schedules and maps and send messages if we need to meet somewhere.

Good you are in the oltrarno which is a lot better in my opinion. Lot of cute boutiques here. Great little dinner places on this side which I think are much better than on the more touristy side of florence.

In terms of cell service. I use google fi which is great if you travel frequently. Otherwise prior to this, I remember going in to a local TIM store (one of their big cell providers in italy) and switching out my sim card). I was on some travel forum (google best sim plan for tourists in italy or some variation) and got a month long plan for cheap. Had to show a passport.

Don't know about busses and trains since I drive everywhere. Hit me up for more questions if you have them. If u are in italy in may or june, let me know since I'm thinking of heading out there for a little get away.

I was in Siena for a few days three summers ago. I had only one day I could ride, so I booked a tour with Piero, the owner of Bike Florence & Tuscany (http://www.bikeinflorence.com). It was a one-on-one tour, not cheap, but my only option given my schedule. His company also operates group rides if your schedule is more flexible. You can take one of those to get a feel for the area, before setting out on your own.

My ride started in Siena and made a big loop between Siena and Florence. I can;t remember all the towns we went through -- a bunch of walled medieval towns. Montereggione, Casola d'Elba, San Gimignano, all in or near the Chianti region. One of the best rides of my life. I'm jealous of the opportunities you'll have.

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<The Dew Abides>

I was in Tuscany once previously for a short time as well, I did a fairly flat ~20 km ride between wineries with my wife that gave me a taste for the scenery so I'm pretty excited to experience more of it with some more difficult terrain.

Thanks, I really appreciate the insight. We will be there through 5/6, so if that lines up at all with when you will be there feel free to reach out and we can see if things work out to get in a ride.

JEALOUS!!

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Formerly DrD

I was in Italy last summer. I think you plan is quite sound. First of all Florence is an awesome city. The art in the museums is breathtaking. Second wise to be near the train station downtown. You cannot take a rental car downtown without big penalty. I just picked up a SIM Card in Florence from a vendor and it gave me 2 GB of data and a month for 25 euros.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

I spent a week there last summer (during heat wave, it was pretty rough). Got a few rides in and it was some of the best riding I have ever done. I would recommend any of the routes that I took (see links below). Florence definitely has some pretty serious mountains but also can just stick with countryside rollers all day long. I wish I could have done more riding while I was out there, I didn't get to explore much to the west and south.


I rented a carbon bike out there with no problem. I only did probably a grand total of about 10 miles on dirt/gravel roads. If you enjoy the gravel stuff then bring a bike for that since there seemed to be a lot of it, otherwise I found it pretty easy to avoid those roads. Also if you are riding around downtown a gravel bike could come in handy since the cobblestone roads can be pretty rough otherwise.



I used ridewithgps and strava quite a bit for searching good routes. I didn't have cell service so I relied pretty heavily on uploading a foolproof route onto my garmin and just following that. I've also seen that veloguides has a person in florence that you can ride with and show you the good local roads/climbs/etc, looks reasonably priced as far as veloguides go.






https://www.strava.com/activities/1110209616
https://www.strava.com/activities/1116678480
https://www.strava.com/activities/1115058532
https://www.strava.com/activities/1111971899




If you want the gpx files just PM me and I can send them over to you.

Sure, those look like some good routes, I'll shoot you a PM with my email.

I'm still trying to decide between my carbon aero road bike and the gravel bike. I don't think I want to rent mainly because the prices seem exorbitant, I've generally seen around 40 euros per day for a rental, that'll add up over two months lol. Just a question of whether I want speed or versatility.