Bikes are not allowed in Venice. You can ride across the Ponte della Liberta (the 4km bridge that takes trains and cars onto the island) but once you arrive it's like riding up to the front door of a mansion and being asked to take your shoes off. The 40km ride from Padova along the Brenta canal was fabulous, despite a sudden downpour right about lunchtime. The SR11, which runs the length of the canal, into Mestre and over the bridge, takes you past several histo...

What a fabulous surprise of a city Padova is, calm, together, friendly, beautiful and quintessentially italian. Aesthetically beautiful like Bologna with its porticos and Basilicas but lacking the frenetic exhausting nature of larger Italian cities. Tourists may well head straight to Venice 40km away but Padova, is just, well, so likable. We had a leisurely 70km ride from Soave, through dozens of ghost towns, so very vacant it was starting to freak me out. We lef...

I ride to eat, I eat to ride. It's a pretty happy existence. Eating well is important to me, I research good restaurants in much the same way I search for hotels. I want authentic food, passionate owners/chefs/waiters, In much the same way as I would hope to serve food to friends at home. Europe for me is food heaven whether it's the flakiest, light as air, pane au raisin in Paris or a simple mushroom and garlic tapas in Spain. So far though if I'm honest (and wh...

If I was any more relaxed I'd be at risk of never moving again. The sun, the water, the general slowness of Italian life, it's addictive. Is it any wonder they drink aperitifs at 11am? Lake Garda is a big place, 55km long or so, even without the bend in the middle you wouldn't be able to see from one end to the other. The edges are lined with small villages as are the hillsides overlooking the water. All of them have their own personality, not unlike the Italians...

Behold Lake Garda! Rounding the corner onto Quartiere Europa the lake, it's sheer cliffs on one side and overlooking hundreds of windsurfers off Riva del Garda, was like a smack in the face. After 40km of beautiful riding through Italian countryside from Trento (where the bike route goes through people's backyards and fights for space among vineyards and apple trees) the sudden lake view was a shock. The high vantage point is spectacular, hand to my mouth I was s...