06/05/2026
Saying goodbye to Tuscany. The scenery is stunning, the constant rolling hills just provide miles of views. How's it to ride though?
Well there's a few things that you should keep in mind. First, Italian roads don't really work hard to avoid steep grades. For a lot of the roads the climbs will have sections that are 20% or more. In Vermont a local classic is the Jenny Coolidge Road climb - a lot of what I rode here was steeper than that. Generally the riding here is more vertical per mile than Vermont especially if you venture onto smaller paved or gravel roads.
Next up, Tuscan gravel. The roads aren't graded very often, so descents can be very sketchy with a lot of loose washed rock punctuated by braking and acceleration bumps at the switchback corners. Plus they are just a hair over one car wide, and they are used by local drivers. Drivers are generally pretty reasonable on the one laners, but a blind bumpy corner will always be a blind bumpy corner.
Finally, riding on more major roads can be tough. Since so many roads are uniformly narrower than US roads, cars passing you (or other oncoming cars) will sometimes give what feels like a teeny tiny amount of room. I never got buzzed, rude gestures or verbal assaults, but on a road that's 10 feet wide, a car passing you using six or seven of them can feel pretty weird. Add to that the traffic circles in town, where I found the best solution was to just take the whole lane rather than have someone pass to make the next right six feet in front of me. The riding is great but rider confidence is key.
