Cycling Again, Italy 2022

Where Have All the Tourist Gone
Roman Colleseum 2020

Hello, thanks for checking out our blog. We're headed back to Italy for another attempt at a 3 month cycling tour on April 1st. We attempted to do this trip in 2020 when it was cut short, to just 4 weeks, when Italy shut down the country for covid. Trying to get home was an adventure in itself as well as the empty Roman streets. We always hated those tourist crowds in Rome thinking how nice it would be if they weren't there. We did our tour of the Roman sites during the lock down. We didn't realize we were breaking the law, you were only allowed to walk your own area. Not speaking the language or knowing the rules didn't help.  The police chased us off at the Trevi Fountain, as they knew we were just dumb tourists they didn't give us a fine. Well, at the end of the day we didn't realize how much we missed those tourists. Without them and the packed restaurants, markets or pizza joints, Rome is not Rome. All the open food markets and nonessential businesses were closed down, but thank god, our favorite liquor store remained open. We were on a first name basis with them by the time we left. We're hoping to return to a more normal Italy.  

What a strange day,
Pantheon 2020

The trip home after the shutdown,
 a 17 hour layover at the Frankfurt airport.

No more Quarantini's

Our planned route will take us from Roma to Napoli, 200 miles/320 km, in about 2 weeks with 7 days of riding. We'll visit the island of Procida just off of Napoli for a few days. From there we will head to Apuglia, the heel of Italy via train if they let us on, to visit one of our favorite biking regions. We have had difficulties in the past with bicycles and trains, we will see what happens. We can always rent a car. The Apuglia tour will be aprox 500 to 600 miles.

After our southern Italy tour we will head back to Roma, via ?,  to start the northern tour through Tuscany, Florence, Genoa and back to Rome.  We'll be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in June so landing somewhere nice for that occasion is definitely on the books. At the end of the day, at the completion of our trip, we will have pedaled about 1500miles/2400km, give or take 500mi/800km. 

This time our blog will have the added feature of interactive maps with pictures.  Below you will find a map of our planned route to Napoli.  Once we start riding the map below will be changed to a map tracking our rides. The planning route maps plus new planned routes will still be available by a link on the sidebar if viewing on your computer. If on a phone or tablet try the 3 hash marks at the top of the page. You can also sign up if you would like to be notified, via email, when we make new posts.  If you subscribe you'll only get notified of our new posts, not map updates. No advertisements or other BS.  

One thing to note, is that we make as few reservations as possible. Usually not more than a day or 3 in advance. We flow with the wind and where go is anyones guess. Help us make this entertaining for all with your comments, questions and suggestions for future post, restaurants, food, sites, etc. etc.

Click around and have fun. 

Jim and Devon