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Escape to the Real Rome
Earlier in the year, I spent one April evening looking up cheap flights to Rome online. Having spent the day cycling around Bath in dull drizzle, then waiting outside the Pump Rooms for a friend that didn’t show up, I decided it was time to escape to the real Rome. Once I’d wiped my bicycle seat dry, I made a non-stop dash for my desk.
I’m an avid cyclist and always jump at the chance to go for a ride. Sometimes, however, you really do need a change of scenery – the canal route was losing its appeal – and sometimes it’s also pleasant not to return home drenched. I imagined myself pulling up next to the great sights of Rome – the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Palatine – back-dropped by clear blue skies, hopping off my bicycle and strolling up to take a closer look. Come May, I was doing just that.
One of the visions (and sounds) that lingered in my mind (and rang in my ears) from past trips to Italy were mopeds: mopeds in their hundreds, full force, dominating highways and swarming in the side streets. Currently their ‘greener’ cousin is getting a little more attention; perhaps in line with Italy’s other environmental leaps such as the banning of plastic bags. Everyone can be thankful for the heavenly near-silence of a bicycle; it provides a much more agreeable accompaniment to the country’s scenery than a whining engine.
Italy has a great deal to offer cyclists: there are world famous coastal routes stretching down through Liguria and Amalfi, which overlook the sparkling Mediterranean; mountain climbs to challenge the world’s top athletes in the Apennines or the Dolomites. And then, on the other hand, for the more casual among us, there are plenty of places to rent your wheels from in the big cities – Florence, Venice, Milan, Genoa…Rome.
Mountain bikes and road bikes are available for hire and the rates, for a capital city, are impressively low. Groups can often get reduced prices and there are options for guided tours around the city with an English-speaking guide, so you can learn and get in some good exercise at the same time. You might want to make the experience a tandem one, or add a little kick with a pedal-powered motor: these options are available too. Should you want to explore other cities beyond your base, bicycles can also be taken on most trains – just look out for the bicycle logo, or ask if you are unsure.
After a day of cycling and building up a healthy appetite where better to find yourself than Italy? Its culinary finesse needs no introduction and Rome boasts some of the country’s finest dining experiences, bringing together influences and dishes from Sicily to the Lombardy region. You can get down to some well-earned rehydration too: a cool bottle of Birra Moretti or Menabrea, fresh lemonade if you’d prefer.
A good night’s sleep, a morning stretch, an espresso and you’re raring to go again, trust me.
BIO
Linda Endersby spent 19 years in the airline industry enabling her to visit many beautiful places across the world. As well as writing about the places she loves, weekends as a bookseller offer her fabulous opportunities to research future destinations.