cycling from scotland to italy – route suggestions

bit of a pipedream at the moment but looking for advice on routes to take/ general good advice. TO be precise woudl be from Glasgow to picinisco east of rome, nearest town Frosinone. I’m thinking quiet roads mostly or if there was paved off road. WIll try and use sustrans routes in UK – mostly advice for cycling in france and italy. Using my hardtail 29er – will change the tyres. Thinking about wild camping most the way – realise not allowed in italy but web says you can mostly et away with it. About 1,600 miles, hoping to take about a month to do. Other than that, very eary thinking. Are there any good websites to look at?

Thanks

No advice but sounds great!

Sounds like a great trip, I’ve considered doing similar in the opposite direction ie fly to Rome and cycle back to Edinburgh.
However, I’d be surprised given my experience of cycling on NCN routes, if your estimate of the mileage is close to accurate. It always seems to work out as 1.5 to 2 times a directish route. Hopefully I’m wrong.

How hilly do you want it to be? There are some big ones on the way

For route planning, use http://www.cycle.travel

Similar algorithm to Google maps in that routes use road users phone data to assess the average speed of travel on any given road. However the routes, instead of being the fastest, are the quietest routes available with focus on cycle paths.

We’ve based a few cycle tours on it, and it’s quite impressive.

Other than that, go for it – sounds a great trip!

I cant really add much about the Scottish/English route but Me and Mrs Vader walked from Canterbury to Rome a few years a go, we followed the Via Francigena route which is largely off road with a bit of tarmac. I remember at the time it would also be superb on a bike, 99% rideable save for some steep climbs and some step sections. Lots of forest tracks/single track, farm tracks and canal paths. It is basically the original roman route between the two places or thereabouts, as main roads are now on top of the original roman road of course. A hardtail or cross/gravel bike would be perfect.

We used these guidebooks, they also do gpx downloads. https://pilgrimagepublications.com/pp_2014/via-francigena/. I see also they are doing something aimed at cycling now but I haven’t read that. They have basically hunted out the best paths and off road tracks – in fact we bumped into the guidebook writer on his mtb, checking the route.

Cicerone do a guide too, its definitely worth a read but the route is a bit pants as the author has stuck to tarmac and weirdly makes it out to be K2 levels of difficulty.

We wild camped most of the way although it was winter by the time we got to Italy and snowy. We have done a lot of bivvying and generally sleeping ‘rough’ but still found Italy hard going – difficult to find anywhere that wasn’t near a farm or house or people. There is an issue with migrants moving up through the country which makes people nervous – we were advised never to wild camp although we never at any point felt unsafe. We were super discrete though. Elsewhere no real bother – canals and cemeteries are places you won’t get bumped.

Somehow get to Canterbury and then join the route from there, or pick it up at calais. Since we did it’s got a bit better in terms of waymarking – in france it’s a GR route now. Overall a lovely route linking up beautiful rural villages, wild open scenery, gorges, single track and an alps crossing. And then the madness that is Italy.

Komoot is a good starting point for tours over seas
https://www.komoot.com/plan/tour/d09A1RhF_-_JwE=F5yABL_U1KVbhIA=/@46.6645174,6.4160156,5z

Wild camped in various places all over the world and never had any issues.
Usual stop late, leave early.

The coast to castles NCN route from edinburgh to newcastle is lovely. Would make a good starting point

This site might help you with the route: https://www.cyclestreets.net/
I’ve just checked and it works in the EU but it limits the distance you can calculate between. If you pick ‘unhurried’ it will pick out bridleways and sustrans routes. I would check it all though if you use as when we did it took us down unused tracks which might not be suitable for some types of bike.
Good luck and we expect to see loads of pics with a write up please, when you get back.

Me and Mrs B have jist done the Italy Divide and lots of it was the Via Francigena. Our route went from Bologna to Torbole in Lake Garda. There were some big hills, it definately went through Rome

Almost exactly 10 years ago I cycled from the Scottish Borders to Athens. I’d highly recommend the cycle to Newcastle as Slackboy suggests, then jump on the ferry to Amsterdam. That way you miss out cycling the length of England, however as soon as you get off the boat you’ll be riding on awesome bike paths through Holland and into Belgium.

Getting a Newcastle/Hull ferry to The Netherlands or Belgium is a good call. Cycling down to the French ferries in England will be a bit of a roundabout trip if you want to follow quiet Sustrans routes.
I found cycling through central France was very pleasant. Lots of quiet back roads to follow. It is quite common for small towns to have municipal camping sites which are usually clean and very cheap.
If you are heading to Italy, I’d recommend a route that takes you through the Alps and over some of the big passes, maybe even through Switzerland (unless you really don’t like climbing). It’s spectacular country, and worth experiencing on a bike.

Thanks everyone great responses with really useful advice. Will follow up on all of these and doubtless come back with more questions.

Was there not a program recently (probably Easter) with c-list celebs doing a pilgrim route. I’d say that’s a reasonable start.

Edit: as a few have said Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome. So plenty of rest stops.

Via Francigena is now an official Eurovelo route (5). Worth checking out: http://www.viaromeafrancigena.com

I agree with Hull – zeebrugge ferry, once you’ve done Scotland to Hull that’s enough of Britain covered, and you get to do Belgium, possibly even lux, Strasbourg, zurich, Milan instead of all france ??

Three of my cycling buddies rode from Cheam (south London) to Milan last year. I was hoping to join them but couldn’t sort out the time needed.

They were on road bikes but the one who planned it all hates traffic so he spent months pouring over Google maps where possible (you can’t preview the Swiss section due to privacy laws preventing Google maps in Switzerland) checking the route and ensuring they were decent rides.

Ride to Folkestone and then on the Chunnel to Calais (there is a service for bikes that collects you at Folkestone and then sticks you in a van with your bikes on a trailer for the crossing) and then south from there.

I think they went over the Simplon pass into Italy. It took them ten days for circa 1,600 km (not miles as yours is).

It sounds like great fun, I’m hoping to join them on a future trip. I could probably get you the route files if you want; I think they are on plotaroute or ridewithGPS or something like that.

Amusing fact, one of the three rode it without telling his wife. When he raised it she banned him from riding to Italy on concerns over well.. nothing really, just wifely concerns. So he told her he was going to Calais for ten days or so to look around and just rode it without her knowing.

Yes.lookm at the eurovelo routes ev5 and the ocean one from Scotland… I crossed San gothard pass follow the mosele and the Rhine rivers to Basel…
Sorry bit breif
I used bikeroutetoaster.to.make.a.similar.route many years ago… bet couldmroute.long.distance… don’t know.now.tho….

http://hoopdriver.blogspot.com… infornatualty.the.maps.dont.work.right now could.email.you a.few.gpx.files.if.you need them…

Take a look at the Eurovelo routes http://www.eurovelo.com/en/eurovelos

The quality of these can vary but they have a key to establish what level they are at. Those in green are almost fully segregated and suitable for a child to cycle on. If you ferry across EV15 will take you half way there, all the way along the Rhine and into the Alps. http://www.rhinecycleroute.eu/

You could pick up another EV route from there but I don’t think they’re quite so well established in Italy, so you might want to mix it up a bit. Italian drivers are a bit bonkers too so choose wisely.

OCM maps can also be useful to establish national and regional cycle routes.

I keep dipping into Italy Cycling Guide – also a pipe dream at the moment. Lots of nice looking stuff. I quite like the look of the Rhine route from Rotterdam to Chur then across to pick up the Via Claudia Augusta. From there the Bicitalia Ciclopista del Sole heads to Rome.

Just spotted this Azur, 5 years old, cycled the whole EuroVelo 15. OK, downhill, but still…

My parents did this route a few years ago and thought it was fantastic. That would take care of France at least…

The Ultimate Cycle Journey from the Channel to the Med

I can help you get from Scotland to Northern Italy at least.

I’ve just come back from cycling from Koblenz to Venice via the Rhine, Main, Tauber, Romantische Strasse and Via Claudia Augusta. Almost entirely dedicated cycle paths or quiet roads. Took a little over two weeks. Lovely route. The only issue is taking a fully laden bike over the Fernpass although there is a shuttle that will take baggage.

Cycle to Newcastle and get the ferry to Amsterdam, then cycle down to join the Rhine somewhere near Utrecht, then follow the Rhine cycle path to Mainz and as above.

An alternative I’ve also done is to turn east when you get to the Danube to Passau, down to Salzburg and then into Italy on the Alpe Adria Radweg. This involves a motorail which some might count as cheating 🙂

None of this is in any way a pipedream. You’ll see dozens of people per day doing chunks of these routes. All you need is time.

From the north of Italy to Rome check out slowoldman’s link. It’s a great resource. The default website for touring cyclists is crazyguyonabike which is a huge database of people writing up their trips.

Good luck.

Yes.lookm at the eurovelo routes ev5 and the ocean one from Scotland… I crossed San gothard pass follow the mosele and the Rhine rivers to Basel…

Thats the way we go to Northern Italy. Not too many killer hills before you get to the Alps. When you do, you only need to get up, then it is nearly all downhill from the Gotthard Pass.

There’s a good route using the Inn Radweg to Innsbruck, up the Brenner Pass on the old main road and down to Bolzano.Excellent cyclepaths and road riding to Trento.

Envious… Have a great trip..

Edit: realised I’ve already replied!