Italy (all)

[The author travels around the world and reviews hostels, and has built up a large hostel directory.]

What are hostels?

The quickest answer I can give to you is that hostels are budget accommodations where you share a room with other travelers. To be more specific though and to give you a better idea of what to expect I will say that a hostel room is like a hotel room but instead of being just one bed there are a couple (or a few) bunk beds. There are also (gasp!) other people. People you do not know! These other people are travelers who are most likely very much like you in the sense that they are exploring and traveling and doing it as absolutely cheaply as possible. Hostels have been around a long long time. There are over 20,000 of them around the world. Hostels are very much a part of the culture of Europe, and are starting to be known in the USA as well. Hostels are a cheaper way of staying in a city where you do not live.

David has written a book on bicycle touring in Tuscany. The site offers many useful links for Italy in general, Tuscany, Umbria, Marches, and Lazio, and miscellaneous travel sites; as well as a picture gallery.

Situated almost in the center of the Italian peninsula only one hour away from Rome, Abruzzo it's one of Italy best kept secrets. Most of its economic life takes place on the coast facing the Adriatic Sea but its very heart lies among the many mountains ranges that run along its territory. Here you can find the highest peaks in the Apennines. Coast and mountains are fastened together by a green belt of gentle hills lined with olive trees and vineyards. Thanks to a foreseeing policy of land preservation now thirty percent of its territory is protected as National Park (4 right now) or wildlife reservation.

A practical guide (not terribly up-to-date, though).

Bicycle paths in Turin.

With timetables.

Complete information, from the site of FIAB - la Federazione Italiana Amici della Bicicletta.

Offers a Timetable of main train connections.

Cycling photographer Sue Darlow has lived for many years in the city of Modena, where you don't have to be a cyclist to cycle.

The first time I visited Modena, a small city near Bologna in the plain sandwiched between the Apennines and the Alps, and famous for its balsamic vinegar, I cycled there from the airport. What a pleasant surprise. In addition to a lovely porticoed city centre painted in warm yellows and earthy browns and the magnificent marble Romanesque cathedral, the place was alive with cyclists. [...]

Now that I have lived here for so many years and observed the Modenese awheel, something has dawned on me: a 'bike culture' is not necessarily something that is self-consciously created by people who love and promote cycling, who know all about gear ratios, aerodynamics and frame angles and who dress the part.

This is a book ``[detailing] the unusual happenings of Neil [Anderson] and Sharon while cycle touring the small Mediterranean island of Sardinia''.

Has a map of bike paths inside Florence, a calendary of events in Florence and Tuscany, a list of bicycle shops, and will have descriptions of rides around Florence, and also... inside it!!!

July the 12th 1970: the group decided to participate to the 200 km cycling race in Switzerland. Three members of the board of directors (Freschi, Casali and Brandolini) left for Brunnen, to achieve the Alpine license. They came back from Switzerland and decided to create the Apennine license in Cesenatico, in order to emulate and to excel the Alpine one. Brandolini chose the route and Casali organised the race. The 20th of May 1971, the first edition started, at that time called ``Audax cicloturistico di Gran Fondo Sociale: Brevetto Appenninico di Km 200'' Seventeen riders started at 5 o'clock in the morning from their usual meeting point: ``Bar del Corso'' This was the first step: today Nove Colli attracts thousands of people every year.

Load your bicycle on a bus and visit a beautiful park in Liguria - a service run in Summer 1998, see the article for details.

This is an ``ecological tour'' held in Grosseto, Tuscany, in mid June each year. It has attracted 3500 participants in 1996.

This site carries information on mountain bike competitions in the Trentino Dolomites such as the Rampilonga in Val di Fassa and the ``100km dei Forti'' at Folgaria.

The bicycle news agency - agenzia stampa per un mondo ciclabile.

Claudio, Giorgio, Guido, Roberto, Stefano. Interessi diversi, ma stessa passione per la mountain bike. Prima come semplice voglia di praticare uno sport certamente affascinante; dopo come desiderio di conoscere nuovi amici, aggregandoli in questa iniziativa. L'entusiasmo ci ha quindi portati il 1 gennaio 1999 a ``fondare'' questo nuovo club di mountain bike, non agonistico, che riteniamo possa dare, a tutti coloro che lo vorranno, nuove soddisfazioni.

Oggi, a tre anni di distanza, siamo in 40 a condividere questa esperienza. Lago del Cerreto, agosto 1998 Il nostro ``territorio'' &e grave; l'appennino reggiano, dalle prime colline poste a pochi chilometri da Reggio Emilia, fino ai monti Cusna, Cerreto, Ventasso. Meno frequentemente percorriamo l'appennino modenese, certamente altrettanto bello. Quest'anno prevediamo di ``affrontare'' anche percorsi con caratteristiche maggiormente ``escursionistiche'' e quindi agevolmente percorribili da chiunque.

A cycling Club in Trentino.

A cycling club of Melzo (Milan, Italy): includes the report of a Coast to Coast tour in Italy.

From the online pages of Radwelt, the journal of ADFC.

From Bike - Dolomiti e Dintorni.

Maps describing the Northernmost part of a a nationwide bicycle path in Italy.

L'Udace - Unione degli Amatori Ciclismo Europeo è una libera associazione senza fini di lucro basata sul volontariato il cui scopo è lo sviluppo dell'attività amatoriale e cicloturistica.

FIAB, la Federazione dei ciclisti urbani e dei cicloescursionisti is the Italian national bicycle advocacy group. Now featuring La rete cicloturistica nazionale (the national bicycle touring network). Some local chapters:

• Bici & Dintorni, an advocacy group in Torino, associated to FIAB and ECF
• Amici della Bicicletta di Padova
• Associazione Aruotalibera - Pordenone
• Gruppo Ulisse - Trieste
• Cicloturismo Sangiorgino - San Giorgio di Nogaro (Udine)
• Amici della Bicicletta di Verona includes plenty of useful links to other organizations, and precious information for the bicycle tourist
• Amici della Bici di Brescia has among others tours descriptions in the Brescia area