Originally Posted by
markf
Why Rome? A smaller city like Florence or Bologna would be an easier place to start a tour. Pisa apparently has a lot of cheap flights, too. Fly into one of those cities, cycle around Tuscany for two weeks and fly home would make an excellent tour, although the more scenic parts of Tuscany are extremely hilly (as are all the scenic parts of Italy).
+ 1 - I was also wondering about the logic of starting your trip in Rome. I would rather fly into Florence or Pisa and start from there. I toured in Tuscany two and a half years ago and it was fantastic. We started in Lucca (very close to Pisa.) A shop called
Chronò had the best touring bikes we could get our hands on. The owner, Paladino, was really nice and knowledgeable with reasonable rental rates. The bikes came equipped with a rear rack. It's very mountainous (gorgeous though!) north of Lucca as you head into Bagni di Lucca, but less so going south into Volterra. We encountered many cyclists north of Lucca and also in the Chianti region. You can easily spend two weeks riding through Tuscany and enjoy every minute of it.