Italy Venice to Pisa Help

My wife and I would like to take a 2 week ride from Venice to Pisa this September. We are from the
US and have never been to Italy. Any suggestions or web sites you can give us would be welcome.

We think we would than move on to Cinque Terre for a 3 day hike.

We would prefer to rent bikes in Venice and turn them in in Pisa. Anyone have any experience
with this?

We would prefer to stay at inexpensive overnight facilities, but would entertain camping. Is
this too ambititous to accomplish on our first trip to Italy (we don't speak Italian)? Thanks
for your imput.

[email protected]

 

[email protected] (GLH1013) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> My wife and I would like to take a 2 week ride from Venice to Pisa this September. We are from the
> US and have never been to Italy. Any suggestions or web sites you can give us would be welcome.

http://www-math.science.unitn.it/Bike is the best.

> We think we would than move on to Cinque Terre for a 3 day hike.
>
> We would prefer to rent bikes in Venice and turn them in in Pisa. Anyone have any experience
> with this?

I've biked into Venice -- it wasn't easy. The surrounding industrial area on the other side of the
lagoon is not bike friendly. Venice itself cannot be biked because it is entirely canals and ped
walkways, with lots of bridges with stairs. That said, the ride did allow me to visit places few
tourists ever get to see, but if that is not your thing then better take the train out of the city.

>
> We would prefer to stay at inexpensive overnight facilities, but would entertain camping.

There are plenty of 1-star hotels and hostels, which are often just as inexpensive as camping (and
more centrally located).

 

On Fri, 23 May 2003, bikerider7 wrote:

> [email protected] (GLH1013) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> > My wife and I would like to take a 2 week ride from Venice to Pisa this September. We are from
> > the US and have never been to Italy. Any suggestions or web sites you can give us would be
> > welcome.
>
> http://www-math.science.unitn.it/Bike is the best.
>
> > We think we would than move on to Cinque Terre for a 3 day hike.
> >
> > We would prefer to rent bikes in Venice and turn them in in Pisa. Anyone have any experience
> > with this?
>
> I've biked into Venice -- it wasn't easy. The surrounding industrial area on the other side of
> the lagoon is not bike friendly. Venice itself cannot be biked because it is entirely canals and
> ped walkways, with lots of bridges with stairs. That said, the ride did allow me to visit places
> few tourists ever get to see, but if that is not your thing then better take the train out of
> the city.

And I've biked near Venice. Coming from the east (Slovenia) I stopped at Donna di Piave, took the
train to Venice for a day - that was great fun - then took the train from Donna to Plato and biked
from there. Biking in the part of northern Italy between Venice and the mountains isn't very good.
It is a flat, industrialized area with lots of traffic on the narrow roads, including big trucks.
Drivers are used to slow moving vehicles - mainly little scooters - and it wasn't dangerous, but it
wasn't fun either, especially in the cities.

Bicycling is much in Tuscany on in the mountains, but both are hilly.

Mark <www.cs.unca.edu/~boyd/bicycling.html

 

[email protected] (bikerider7) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> [email protected] (GLH1013) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> > My wife and I would like to take a 2 week ride from Venice to Pisa this September. We are from
> > the US and have never been to Italy. Any suggestions or web sites you can give us would be
> > welcome.
>
> http://www-math.science.unitn.it/Bike is the best.
>
> > We think we would than move on to Cinque Terre for a 3 day hike.
> >
> > We would prefer to rent bikes in Venice and turn them in in Pisa. Anyone have any experience
> > with this?
>
> I've biked into Venice -- it wasn't easy. The surrounding industrial area on the other side of
> the lagoon is not bike friendly. Venice itself cannot be biked because it is entirely canals and
> ped walkways, with lots of bridges with stairs. That said, the ride did allow me to visit places
> few tourists ever get to see, but if that is not your thing then better take the train out of
> the city.
>

Or use boats. Coming from the east there are boats (every half hour if I remember right) right into
the heart of Venice and also heading out to the west. Lets you cycle the coast and at the same time
bypass the whole of Venice's unpleasant hinterland.

Tom [email protected] http://www.bicycletraveler.de

 

For some time I've been collecting information on user experiences taking bikes on planes, trains,
buses, boats, etc. There's lots of stuff on rentals, folding bikes, boxing, airlines, and railroads
around the world and how to ride in/out of about 120 airports.

I do not think it will be possible to rent bikes in one city and turn them in another. I've never
heard of it in any country. Maybe in some areas where the national RR rents bikes you could do it,
but those bikes are usually pretty bad.

See it at http://www.BikeAccess.net

GLH1013 wrote:
> My wife and I would like to take a 2 week ride from Venice to Pisa this September. We are from the
> US and have never been to Italy. Any suggestions or web sites you can give us would be welcome.
>
> We think we would than move on to Cinque Terre for a 3 day hike.
>
> We would prefer to rent bikes in Venice and turn them in in Pisa. Anyone have any experience
> with this?
>
> We would prefer to stay at inexpensive overnight facilities, but would entertain camping. Is
> this too ambititous to accomplish on our first trip to Italy (we don't speak Italian)? Thanks
> for your imput.
>
> [email protected]

 

>We would prefer to rent bikes in Venice and turn them in in Pisa. Anyone have any experience
>with this?

You may want to consider buying the bikes near your start and then sell at your destination. Likely
to cost you less than a rental and you'll probably end up with better bikes.

 

There's another style of bicycle touring to consider: set up "base camp" lodging in a nice
riding area, and make multiple single-day rides over three or four days. Then travel to another
"base camp".

Yes it's less macho than one giant point-to-point route. But more fun for some travelers --
especially those who don't like dealing with large variations in riding ability, or hours spent in
the rain. And travelers who need to return rental bikes. Sharon and I and other couples we know have
done several trips like that happily.

If you have a rental car and bring a rear-bike-rack with you on the airplane, you get even more
flexibility -- until you see the prices of rental cars in Italy including mandatory theft insurance
-- especially if you do a conversion into the "new dollars".

Ken

P.S. Seems to me that riding from Venice to Pisa is likely to include riding over the ridge of the
Apennine mountains. Think about about where and how you will make this crossing.