Barrettscv 

Where should I begin? I'd like to develop a bike safe route from Florence to Rome and beyond. I'm able to map a route on Map-my-ride, but it's difficult to determine if the route is a lightly-used farm-road or a heavily-used commuter road and sometimes practice route of the local Formula One wanna-be team .

raybo

Here are 29 links to information about bike touring in Italy.

While several will be of interest to you, none of them specifically suggest a route from Florence to Rome.

Barrettscv 

That helped. There is a route from Florence to Siena that looks promising: https://www.piste-ciclabili.com/regione-toscana

But Siena to Rome is still a blank.

Sachelis

Start with Google maps (Google's default directions between the two). Then drop the little "Google man" on a road to see if it's a "farm-road or heavily-used." If the road is too busy, use the little man to find a smaller road and then drag-and-drop your route onto the smaller road. This page explains how I used this technique (and the Google "man") to plan my route through the Pyrenees.

indyfabz

My approach to developing a route around Andalucia might work for you. Michelin makes great road maps of Europe, including regional ones. There is, in fact, a regional one for Tuscany (Toscano). It's map No 358. Unless they have changed the format, the roads are shown in different colors and line widths. You can tell the major roads from the minor roads by color, width and numbering.

I used the Michelin map for Andalucia, figured out what I wanted to see using the Rough Guide travel book for the region (I highly recommend the Rough Guide series. Very well researched, and they pull no punches. If a town, hotel, etc., is a dump, they will tell you so.), and then drew lines between towns, usually using the smallest roads shown on the map, which were provincial roads. It worked extremely well.

indyfabz

BTW...The Michelin maps often cotain some basic grade and elevation data. I have seen them in book store chains like B&N. It's nice to be able to see them before you buy them so you can determine if they might be useful.

dorkypants

You can even get a Street View "movie" on tripgeo.com. It lets you put in a route on a Google Map, and then links together the Street View images along that route into a sort-of time-lapse stop-motion movie. As long as the Street View cameras were able to go where your route goes, you can get a rough idea how much traffic is on those roads.

fietsbob

Paper Maps from a Book Shop ? they will show main vs farm/secondairy roads..

Italian Cycling clubs. and the tourist information centers in most cities would be My Pre Internet Ideas

I expect Emailing ACA in Montana And CTC in UK will gain some links, knowledge ..

hueyhoolihan

never knew this. i'll have to try the "google man". i *like* the google man. i like to say it. google man. google man.

raybo

I saw this route at mycycletour.com. It doesn't go all the way to Rome but it does go through Florence: https://www.mycycletour.com/displayro...?RouteNumber=1

indyfabz

Its' called "Street View." It's a starting point, but it can be misleading because you don't know when the video was captured. Traffic volumes can vary by the hour, day, month and even season.