Firenze (Süd)Tirol

Selection

• summer trip amazed me and I wanted to pass Brenner once again
• time constraints only allowed me to travel in the autumn, further constraints:
  • travel south (warmer weather in autumn)
  • travel west (more and better cycling infrastructure)
  • easy train return connection
  • radius of 7 days
• solution is the trip to Firenze, satisfies all of the above

Preparations

• postponed departure one day because of expected rain on day 02
• planned 690 km, real 774 km in 39:40 (5260 m climb)

Diary

Day 00 (2024-10-18)

• daily stats: 73.16 km, 4:08, 759 m
• sleeping: St. Johann in Tirol, hotel
• morning train dis-connection in Linz, only extended bike reservation to next train
• start in Salzburg, light rain, not very cold
• smelled manure in Salzburg and neighborhood
• good cycling path thanks to Garmin and Austrians but bike and shoes were immediately dirty

Day 01 (2024-10-19)

• daily stats: 105.72 km, 5:45, 922 m
• sleeping: Igls, hotel
• night started headache (?? neck muscles), departing with it; throat itching due to smog?
• breakfast, large serving of scrambled eggs
• morning was cold and foggy, fortunately also hilly, tunnel scarf
• later sunny, short-sleeved pauses but “wind” from riding mandated a jacket
• late lunch in Jenbach, Inn part afterwards is a lot industrial
• final climb: not a cycling path, traffic (one screen wipe sprayer)

Day 02 (2024-10-20)

• daily stats: 105.19 km, 5:58, 1270 m

• sleeping: down from Brixen, shelter

• very good morning weather, mountains illumination
• road (re)constructions continued from the summer
• descent is easy, sometimes cold, traces of night rain, lunch in Vipiteno
• Brixen was sunny and warm, like an orchard
• 1st shelter occupied by cycling couple, next one in few kilometers was a good shelter but humidity and danger of tidal wave (river)

Day 03 (2024-10-21)

• daily stats: 144.90 km, 6:36, 344 m
• sleeping: Avio, hotel
• no dew under the shelter next to the river (moisture in breath visible though)
• Klausen–Bolzano – steeper downhill, tunnels of former railway
• Bolzano–Trento – road cycling paradise, valley is wider, limestone cliffs on both sides, irrigation system all around, rarely a place for WC (unless you go off the path)
  • chasing with pensioners: them 25 km/h on e-bikes, me 25.2 km/h and passing
• valley still continued with cliffs, hillsides and castles, I was lucky to experience it in this lighting
• arrival later than expected after sunset (8:51 elapsed, 6:33 moving)

Day 04 (2024-10-22)

• daily stats: 142.49 km, 6:43, 558 m

• sleeping: ~Concordia sulla Secchia, tarp

• great breakfast in the hotel ( no scam happened, gave them tip)
• start into the cold morning, then sweating in a climb before Garda
• closed road because of falling stones
• Lago di Garda, stop at Pesciera
• Minzio river was a boring descend, overtaking e-bike tourists but few roadies did me
• despite boredom, kilometers passed well so I continued up to Mantova
• approach to Po was cloudy, passed it over a closed bridge
• terrain with irrigation dams is not ideal for stealthy sleeping

Day 05 (2024-10-23)

• daily stats: 135.49 km, 7:04, 838 m
• sleeping: Creda, pension
• slept under tarp, night rain and foggy morning, packed wet stuff, little breakfast
• foggy but warm morning, stop after 3/4 hour in a supermarket in Mantiola, bigger breakfast to hold tradition
• continued to Bologna, boring flat terrain, light rain
• hesitating whether to ride through Bologna city center, decided for the detour
• downpour, being soaking wet, road constructions and traffic jams made the way to the center challenging – doubted possibility of reaching the hotel at that moment
• finally reached Café Universitá (first search result from Garmin navigation to “university”), trembling with cold
• walking tour through center turned out much better than queueing in traffic on circuit again
• flash floods of mug, random mug splats
• another heavy rain, this time I don’t care because I’m wet already, stared ascent to Apenines
• lots of water flowing against me down
• cosy but cold/humid accommodation (clothes didn’t dry up completely)
• full dinner with both primi and secondi in nearby restaurant

Day 06 (2024-10-24)

• daily stats: 66.72 km, 3:23, 569 m

• sleeping: NightJet 40294 train

• start into warm and foggy morning, sightly later (because of misunderstanding of breakfast time)
• curiously expected what the weather would be like on the other side, not even reached the pass and caught the first downpour of the day
• road was closed due cars because of landslide, there was a strip for walkers/ cyclists

• climb was easy, descent was hellish, heavy rain while going down, didn’t see much, didn’t take any photos
• completely washed, shoes full of water from the top
• downpour repeated multiple times, fortunately, it was warm ~18°C
• fortunately, there was bit of sun on the last descent to city, I could dry contact layer, softshell jacket was full of water but warm
• eye-catching sellers with laser beams
• waiting for the belated train (all trains from Rome came late that evening)

Day 07 (2024-10-25)

• daily stats: 48.31 km, 2:12, 160 m
• sleeping: home
• night on train was cold (misconfigured AC)
• must have recalibrated price levels and temperature in Vienna
• utilized 5h train connection reserve – Donauinsel flat track, one way wind (lucky)
• Vienna pub full of pensioners + family with children

People and culture

• a road cyclist on train to Linz
• Studentin on train to Salzburg (calling her friend about studies (understood 1/4, accent? vocabulary))
• “Havlíček house” owner (German speaking)
  • former road cyclist, two times rode to Sicilly along Italian coast, kind
  • collaboration with Havlíčkův Brod, not a tourist attraction
• bike-packing couple occupying shelter near Brixen
• scammy-looking fishermen in the city Pesciera
• Bianchi cyclists overtaking me every time in Garda area
• waiter in Mantova, interested in my bicycle and equipment, good discussion
• two bikepacking women in Bolognina, only said hi, unclear whether they stopped because of rain or to have a snack
• 3 PM–7PM siesta
• spoke German with anyone available
  • understanding was slightly harder, locals must have adapted their speech tempo
  • “Wohin geht es noch?” asked by a German in Brenner
• Adige towns
  • Brixen = orchard
  • Bolzano = similar case like Brixen, crossing of multiple valleys but richer, a park
  • Trento is industrial and multicultural
    • you get charged extra for speaking German unlike the other two where you get a discount, Salerno is the border
• Bologna
  • lots of students and young people in general
  • many interesting Renaissance buildings, many covered walkways
  • big square, two leaning towers
• Firenze
  • I didn’t know what to expect, Ponte Vecchio was a good surprise
  • at first I was skeptical about the city (after only seeing it from the hills) but when I entered the historical center, I was much impressed by the amount, monumentality and distribution of the buildings
  • narrow one way streets not only for vespas but also cargo and buses(!)
  • lots of tourists and people in general, different demography than in Bologna

Nature and technologies

• fön headwind from Brenner
• confluence of Adige+Isarco = Adige but Isarco is bigger on map and in reality
• microphones listening water in channel
• metandoto everywhere
• (Po valley) to cross a river you go up, the bigger the river, the higher
• Po delta is below sea level
• I passed majority of Italian river basins: Adige, Po, Reno and Arno
• NightJet carriages were modern design, very clean, must have been only few months old
• Austrian/German cycling paths accessory is top notch, Italy is catching up piecewise (EuroVelo7)

Lessons learnt

• shopping
  • locked bike in small towns is safe for a quick shopping
  • big malls car-only are impossible or unsafe
• cycling path detours
  • sometimes good marking (EuroVelo, backbones), sometimes not marked at all and own navigation
• late lunch but no later than 3 PM (siesta)
• Mediterranean rain (it’s like our summer rain without thunderstorm)
  • take lightweight shoe covers
  • take an extra bag, I had dry clothes in backpack but no bag capacity to put wet clothes into (or different system for wet clothes)
  • it’s possible to ride in heavy rain when there’s warm and drying option at the end of the day
  • Squirt is useless lubricant in rain, take a travel bottle with oil
• avoid being smelly on the train by preparing a clean T-shirt to the top of the bikepack
• flat terrain doesn’t mean more kilometers but less effort, time is consumed equally
• accommodation (shower, bed, dry, breakfast) helps and is potentially quicker
• Jurek shelter is not comfortable in rain (too short, too low) and not needed w/our rain
• city sightseeing with a bike is limited in entrances but extended in reach
• reliable smartphone is godsend (and airplane mode helps)
• airplane mode may be useful in real life too, at the same time, the vacation wasn’t cleaning when the mode wasn’t waterproof
• audax races
  • big cities cause delay, restaurants and shops are in small too
  • racing pace would be much more insane and with more car roads
  • still hesitating about “credit card bike packing”, it could work in practice (one could always find accommodation for the next night)

Misc

• consumption vs hunger delay
• river valleys are industrial (concentrated)
• routing
  • rough route from mapy.cz
  • selected potential night points
  • day to day stages routed by Garmin Connect app (from current location to predicted night point)
• Garmin Edge
  • issues with Garmin climb percents (like smoothing, recording is correct)
  • routing from Garmin Connect – trust (cycling paths) but verify (highway)
    • navigation in cities is priceless, saves time & distance
  • battery consumption per moving hour
    • 17% 4:08 4.1%/h
    • 24% 5:45 4.2%/h
    • 58% 12:34 4.6%/h
  • smartphone consumption per moving hour
    • 18% 4:08 4.4%/h
    • 19% 5:45
    • 66% 12:34