Home » Italy » Central Italy: Venice to Naples, including Italy Survival Guide

Statistics:<br>
Tour date: July 1996.<br>
Total distance: 1300 km.<br>
Total altitude gain: 9 km.

Central Italy: Venice to Naples, including Italy Survival Guide

Thomas Driemeyer
2005-10-16 14:06:47

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cities there may be some restaurants and large supermarkets that stay open, but in general the result is that it is very hard to buy water during this time or to have lunch in Italy. We often used that time for riding, even though we would have preferred to avoid the heat.

Orientation

Italian transportation planners display a stunning incompetence when posting directions. Usually there aren't any. If there are signs, they may point in the wrong direction, perhaps because there is an autostrada (freeway) there. After Montepulciano we were treated to five consecutive signs to our destination, alternating between pointing left and right! Often there is a sign for a destination near the city limits, but you are expected to guess the direction at all following intersections because there are no further signs. Street names are often hidden, unreadable, or missing. Road numbers and distances are almost always missing. Some villages post maps, but the voi siete qui (you are here) arrow is typically missing, or there is more than one (!).

In the absence of conventional methods of orientation, you must bring a good compass and maps. We used blue 1:200,000 maps by Kümmerly + Frey, based on green TCI (Touring Club Italiano) maps. It has turned out to be somewhat difficult to find the green maps in Italy. We used sheets 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12. We also used the bicycle tour guide Mittel-Italien per Rad, Cyklos, Verlag Wolfgang Kettler, ISBN 3-921939-41-0 (German language) to plan our route in Tuscany. It often points out quiet alternatives to the main roads.

Traffic

Generally, Italians know how to deal with cyclists on the road, and leave enough space and don't pass closely at high speed. The inevitable idiot percentage is very small, except in and near Roma and Napoli (befuddled tourists, I suppose). Most roads are well-paved ...