Originally Posted by kbarch

Just how adventurous are you? Unless you really prefer to ride alone, don't turn your nose up at organized tours. They may be larger or smaller, and some will stay every night in the same place, some move towns every day, but in either case they have two huge advantages: support, and most or all of the routes have been scouted for suitability.
Last year I joined a small group and we stayed in a little town at the foot of the Dolomites (Borso del Grappa). Cima Grappa was right there, of course (which we saved for last), but we mixed it up by loading up the van and driving to Trento for one of the mountain stages of the Giro, heading south across the plains of the Veneto to catch another stage that finished at Jesolo (Venice), and another day cycling up the fantastic Passo San Boldo.


One day a couple of the guys who weren't up for the most challenging mountain took the day to go to Venice, and there are certainly opportunities to visit interesting towns, but generally speaking, a cycling tour involving mountains is not the kind of vacation one should expect to tick off visits to urban centers and cultural capitals.
This year, our base of operations will be further to the north and east - I think one day we'll even make it to Slovenia.