The scenery is amazing. Excellent and varied cycling possibilities.
One of the best areas of the world for biking adventures.
Click PLAY or watch 2-minutes of highlights on YouTube.
Ultimately, I had to quit after day 3 because of illness.
Drinking from the same hoses and standing pipes as every other cyclist, I suffered some sort of stomach problem. Diarrhea. Threw up on my shoes, at one point.
Didn’t eat for about 36 hours.
BUT if not sick I might have still quit after Siena. Completing about 190km of the 472 total.
For one thing, the afternoon lightning storms were terrifying. Even the most experienced riders hunker down in lightning. Two were killed in Tuscany as I post — both hit by falling trees.
The rain turned some trails into impassable mud baths. … Though it did soften up some other trails.
My bike is excellent for normal bikepacking — but the Tuscany Trail was far more technical than I’d expected. A mountain bike with very little weight attached is what most experience riders were rocking.
I was envious of the electric mountain bikes.
My bike was the 2nd most inappropriate rig. Worse was a 2-person tandem. Husband and wife. I wished them luck.
I was cycling with ALL my gear for a months long trip.
On one of the many downhill, rocky trails a screw came loose on my front pannier rack. So my front saddle bags were rocking side-to-side.
In Siena I took as much off the bike as possible (see photo below) and went to find luggage storage.
IF you Google “siena luggage storage” you’ll find a wealth of options.
All lies. In Siena there are only tobacco shops who hold a few bags as side income. And they only open randomly. Not Sundays. … And this was Sunday.
WHY doesn’t Siena have 24-hour lockers like most Italian tourist cities.
My theory since age-17 is that Italy is hopeless for tourists.
Nothing works. Nothing is open when you need it.
A long history of government inefficiency and corruption makes it this way.
Note that Germany and Switzerland next door are two of the most efficient nations.
There are no real enforced rules in Italy. Yet every time a tourist turns around somebody is yelling at you for violating an unnecessary rule. Yeesh.
When tourists complain, it’s explained that Italians don’t care about entrepreneurship nor efficiency because they value lifestyle over money. I don’t buy it.
Chain-smoking and sipping tiny espressos is not a healthy lifestyle.
I’d definitely return to Tuscany for cycling. But not likely the most famous ride ➙ the Tuscany Trail.
For one thing, it’s mainly a ca$h grab by organizers. They spend very little and pocket over 100 € / person. Normally capped at 3000, in 2023 they went up to about 4700 bikes. Too many for these trails and small towns.
Better, for example. is the Ganza Gravel event. October is much better weather than June. Cyclists have 3-4 different routes to choose from. Folks get together for meals in the evenings. There might even be a food festival at the end.
For those who are not really cyclists, the supported electric bike tours looked very good to me. Not inexpensive.
Rick McCharles 