Top cycling holidays in Italy

Vai, vai, vai ! is what Italians shout at the beginning of a big cycling race, and we have a pannier packed with all sorts of cycling holidays in Italy, to make you want to go, go, go. And with e-biking all the rage now, there are also plenty of options for vélos with volts. Some people may want to conquer cols on holiday, but many of these tours are for those who want to pace themselves, arrive in plenty of time to have a glass or two of bubbly in the Prosecco region, for example, or an early morning dip before hitting the trails of the Amalfi Coast. Our cycling holidays are time-of-your-life trails not time trials, where winning at life is your sole motivation. Because in Italy, it’s always bellissima by bike.

The umbers of Umbria make it a utopia for cycling.

Our top centre-based cycling holidays in Italy

Although the majority of our cycling holidays in Italy are self-guided, where you cycle from one hotel or guesthouse to the next, and have your luggage transferred for you, we also offer a growing collection of centre-based cycling holidays in Italy. These are usually in places where there are so many trails just outside your bedroom window, that you can just have one central sleep spot. For extra chilling out, all of these holidays are accessible by train so, if you can get to Italy without flying, your adventure starts the minute you board the train.

Centre-based cycling holidays on Italy’s Adriatic Coast

The Marche Coast is one of Italy’s lesser-known biking beauties, and on this cycling holiday you stay in a four-star hotel in Gabicce Mare. From here you can cycle the colossal clifftop trails in San Bartolo Natural Park’s clifftop trails, as well as plenty of winelands. In addition, you take on a section of the Giro d’Italia, so you may want a glass of the local Verdicchio, Montepulciano or Sangiovese to celebrate after that.

You can also base yourself in the Roman, Renaissance and ravishing town of Rimini on this cycling holiday, again in a four-star hotel on the sea. Biking highlights include the Sogliano Route, famous for its challenging ascent of 19 hairpin bends to Santarcangelo di Romagna. As well as some of Emilia-Romagna’s finest medieval towns and villages.

Centre-based cycling holidays in Umbria and Lazio

Umbria is another secret cycling spot for many, and on this centre-based cycling holiday, you spend five days on adventures in and around your base in Assisi, where a whole palette of prettiness awaits. Such as in Mount Subasio Nature Park, which is a part of the Assisi-Spoleto Cycle Trail, or Trevi, an ancient town on the slopes of Mount Serano. All part of the typical undulating Umbrian landscapes that seem to go on forever here. The neighbouring region of Lazio is another spot to get pumped about when it comes to cycling holidays in Italy. Just 60km from Rome, you’re based in Fiuggi on this five day cycling holiday, a medieval thermal spa town in the foothills of Lazio’s Ernici Mountains. Staying in a wellness hotel, it’s the perfect base for cycling in Lazio’s luscious landscapes, valleys and vineyards, as well as on the former Rome-Fiuggi railway line.

The Marche region of Italy is pure magic by bike.

Our TNA Specials cycling holidays in Italy

Standing for The Natural Adventure, our TNA specials holidays are created in-house and managed by our own destination managers. The majority of our holidays have been developed in partnership with adventure companies in the many destinations that we offer. And these are partnerships we still value greatly. With TNA specials, think of them as the house wine, the signature dish or something along those lines. In Italy, we’ve chosen the regions of Umbria, Marche and Lazio as our specials for cycling holidays. And all of them are e-bike holidays too. They range from short breaks exploring the inland and coastal biking trails in Marche, or the Cammino dei Borghi Silenti in Umbria, to longer tours that combine neighbouring Umbria and Lazio.

Top cycling holidays in Italy to combine with a city break

A Florentine finale

Our seven day biking holiday from Pisa to Florence takes you through the ridiculously beautiful landscapes of northern Tuscany. There can be few finer cities than Florence to recover, although this tour is categorised as easy to moderate anyway, with plenty of wine stops at the end of each day as you cycle through Tuscan vineyards. You can also rent e-bikes on this tour, so you’ll be on all cylinders as you focus on that Firenze finishing line.

Road to Rome

Our cycling holiday from Siena to Rome may just win the Giro d’Italia for gorgeousness. Following a section of the Via Francigena for nine days, an ancient pilgrimage route that opens up the sacred heart of Italy’s much worshipped interior, this section is packed with splendid moments. However, the finale is a memorable one, following a cycle path along the River Tiber all the way to the gates of Vatican City. In between, if biking is your religion, exult in the joys of crossing the Val d’Arbia and Val d’Orcia, both landmarks of the Tuscan landscape, or sliding along Lake Bolsena near Lazia as well as an array of Roman sites, finishing with the great capital itself.

Cycling along the Tiber – the last stretch on a cycling trail between Siena and Rome.

Cycling holidays in Italy by train

Italy has some fantastically great value train fares, as offered by Trenitalia, the national rail company and Italo, a privately-run company that competes on intercity routes. Train travel is not the first thing you think about in Italy, but you’ll be surprised at just how many places are served by train, many of which are perfect for our cycling holidays. Puglia, for example, is accessible by train, with a train line that takes you from Bari to Lecce, stopping at Brindisi, all for the same price as an Aperol Spritz. This Puglia cycling holiday starts and finishes in Lecce, and our longer Puglia tour starts in Monopoli and ends in Lecce, both with train stations.

For a long-distance biking trail, the aforementioned Via Francigena is a heavenly combination if you love nature, cycling and train travel. The cycling holidays on the Parma to Siena section, or Siena to Rome, are both accessible by train. Less obvious to many, this cycling holiday in Sicily is also train-friendly, with the only European train service left that shunts the train onto a ferry, adding to the adventure of it all. You can also pack plenty of Prosecco in your pannier if you go cycling in this prettiest of regions, and our Umbrian utopias are all accessible by train. These include a biking trail from Spello to Spoleto, a centre-based holiday with trails from Assisi and a wine-lovers’ cycling circuit around Orvieto, which is also one of our TNA Specials. We have many more rail trails, however, all of which you can see here.

Our TNA Special cycling holiday around Orvieto is just one of many that’s reachable by rail.

Cycling Italy’s Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi coast is a peninsula packed with culture and nature, with generous sprinklings of chic. Behind all the glitz and glam lie hiking trails and a more down-to-earth Italy, ancient woods, family farms, vineyards and lemon groves. You may lose your breath not only cycling but also at the sheer beauty of the clifftop wonders of Amalfi, Ravello or Positano, or along the Sorrento Peninsula, all of which are pure cycling heaven. Albeit a hilly one, which is why our Amalfi cycling holiday is on e-bikes. Why stress when you’re cycling through the sublime?

We hope you’ve enjoyed your journey around some of our most cycling holidays in Italy. You can see all of them here, and please don’t hesitate to contact our adventure specialists for more details. You can also read all our cycling blogs here.