Bikes and trains. Pizza and rain.

Sometimes we get a very quick sense of how cycling in a region will be. We’ve cycled in Italy before, years and years ago, and were impressed with the smooth pavement and respectful drivers in Tuscany, but this part of northern Italy has not caught up with Germany, Austria, or France in welcoming cyclists. But that’s the roads, the cities are super walkable and beautiful. Udine was a lovely surprise with a pretty and walkable center.

With our deadline of a train from Milan we decided to make a train hop from Udine to Conegliano so we could make it to Treviso that day and spend less time riding in the rain.

We both had Treviso marked on our Google maps as an interesting place to visit – sort of a little Venice. An alternative to the magical city, with its own canals and own culture.

Our two nights in Treviso were fantastic. Even with a lot of rain. But the feeling we get in Venice, with no cars, not a whisper of car noise, is very different from Treviso. Definitely visit Treviso, but don’t be expecting the same scope of magic as one finds in Venice. It is much less crowded though, and a fairly short train ride from Venice for making a day trip one way or the other.

What else did we find delightful in Treviso, the birthplace of tiramisu? Cicchetti, which are small bar snacks like tapas or pinxos, served alongside a beer or wine. A quick aside about bike storage in old towns. It’s not easy to find a hotel with easy and convenient storage for our bikes. The hotel Rich found in Treviso, Palazzina 300, were super accommodating and we were able to store our bikes in one of the owners’ fire wood room about a five minute ride from the hotel. Behind a locked gate and in a room stacked with wood for the winter. The owner pointed out the video camera watching the courtyard and assured us they would be safe.

Well fueled from our snack dinner (not really, Rich was super hungry the next morning.), we headed to the train station for a hop from Treviso to Vicenza, and then a 44k/27m ride to Soave.

Americans will likely remember the Soave Bolla commercials from the 70s and 80s, which probably gave most people a somewhat bad opinion of Soave wine. The ads were super cheesy and apparently, the wine not very good. But happily wine now made from the garganega grape is delicious, and in 2002 Soave received DCOG status and joined the ranks of well respected wine in Italy.

The riding was lovely at times, but again, not an area of Italy with very welcoming bike infrastructure. We saw plenty of Italian road cyclists, but not many other bike tourists, and precious few bike lanes or decent shoulders to ride on the busy roads. And no transportation cyclists. No one headed to the shops or to and from school. And the terrain can’t be totally to blame as much of our ride was gently rolling, staying on the edge of the foothills.

We had quite a bit of rain on this section of the trip. I don’t have a lot of photos of rain riding since it’s so hard to take pictures in the wet. And, since we were not quite into the colder part of the year we had a run of hotel rooms where the electric towel racks hadn’t yet been turned on for the season. No heated towel rack and wet weather makes it very difficult to dry our bike gear and other laundry. We had two days of riding still so when we got a working towel rail we sprang into action and did laundry.

We set out the next morning to ride to a town outside of Milan, Gorgonzola, 61k/44miles. As we approached Milan there were better bike paths and more folks out on bikes. We stayed outside Milan because the hotels in the city were quite full and expensive due to a pharmaceutical conference. Our hotel for our last night was close to the canal path that led right into Milan for our ride to town the next day.

We had a few things going for us with this final long train hop. First positive is that Milan Central is an end station, you reach all the platforms from the same level, so no elevators or stairs in case of track change. Our train started at this station so we should have a decent chunk of time to get our bikes into their reserved spots on one car, and ourselves into our reserved seats in the next car.

Ha! What really happened is that our train was late arriving and came in about 20 minutes late which put it cross platform from a Turin train arrival. The electronic tickets for just about everyone on our train did not work at the gates so the station agents had to check and let folks through one at a time – but with bikes we need the wide gates and for those we had to wait and wait and wait until we were just about the last folks to get through. With loaded bikes. Two trains unloading, and two trains worth of folks trying to load, equals one big mess.

Folks who were not convinced the train would wait for them started boarding many cars before their seats which meant the aisles of every car were impassable as people tried to walk along four, five, or even six cars to get to their seats. Our “reserved” bike spaces? Completely filled with giant wheeled suitcases by the time we got to our car. The palaver it took to get our bikes and panniers and us sorted was monumental. We were moving suitcases, bargaining with other riders, helped by a lovely young and patient passenger, and at first greeted with shrugs from the train attendants. They finally had us move to another car where the bike space had a few fewer suitcases in it, and we eventually got to our seats, hot, exhausted, and giddy with joy that we were on our final train ride of the trip.

Our final destination was a hotel in Annemasse where we would spend the night before tackling the climb up the Vallée. (We ended up getting a ride up the Vallée due to heavy rain and cold and exhaustion.) We told ourselves that if it was raining when we arrived in Geneva, or if we were too exhausted we’d just take the train to Annemasse. Another ha! The train tracks were being worked on and no trains running after 8 pm. We arrived at 9:30 and headed out to ride to Annemasse. Thankfully there is a first rate bikeway all the way so even in the rain it wasn’t awful. Just very wet.

A few observations about our different experiences along the way. The Swiss are very no nonsense and straightforward. The bike infrastructure is good. Germany has really good infrastructure but it’s starting to be dated, and, with so many folks on e-bikes, crowded. Germans are gruff. They do not waste time being gentle. As I was pushing my loaded touring bike up a steep climb a man on an e-bike came down the hill. He took the time to stop and say to me “There are many steep hills ahead.”, with a rueful shake of his head at my blithe disregard of tough climbs. We could hear his internal question of why these silly Americans did not have e-bikes. A second German man cycling with his family, all on e-bikes, rode by and motioned to me with a wave of his hand and said “Come on, hurry. Keep up.” I snapped that my bike had no motor and when we encountered he and his family again they tried very hard to be nice. Was I holding a grudge? Why yes, I was.

By contrast the Austrians we encountered were more friendly, and the Italians! We were cheered up climbs with calls of Brava- Bravo! Almost every cyclist called out ciao ciao and smiled and waved. When I was caught in the bike race on a climb the spectators clapped and called out as if I was part of the race when I finally got on my bike to finish the climb.

Although the infrastructure for our northern Italy route was not yet in place it is underway. Alta Alia D’Attraversare is the website for the formal route we partially followed and which is mostly in place and being improved all the time. Worth checking out if you plan to cycle this part of Italy.

We’re in France until December 4th, the 12th arrondissement of Paris and then off to the UK for Christmas and New Year.