pel

Planning on a coupled tandem tour commencing in Rome in April, up to Norway and back to Rome by end of October 2010.

Anybody done something similar?
Would appreciate any suggestions/tips

Many thanks

acantor

It sounds do-able. It's about 2500 km in each direction. Assuming 50 km per day, that's 100 days total. Five months of travel = 150 days.

You might want to leave in mid-May rather than April. As you head north, you will encounter high mountains in northern Italy, and in Austria (or Switzerland, if you chose the slightly less direct route). Some passes may not be open that early in the season. And even if they are open, my guess is that you would rather not get caught in a late-season snow storm in the mountains. Dangerous.

Brains

Italy is fairly bumpy. so that will be a bit of a tough start,
To cross the Alps either follow the coast to France and then up through France (great cycling) via River Rhone, Orleans, Paris and the North Sea Coast

Other option is the old Roman Road the Via Claudia to Austria, along the Danube then Go up via the Rhein or via Prague

Just make sure you take a very different route one way to the other

How many months have you allowed ?

jabantik00

did frankfurt -> rome -> frankfurt in 2007. my journal is on crazyguy (jabantik 2007) if you care to see it.

what sort of suggestions/tips are you seeking? for a travel suggestion/tip, i suggest eating the local food and wine, wherever you are. for a route suggestion, i suggest riding through sardegna and corse as one of your ways to/from rome. if you are a cycling fan, maybe watch stages of the giro (may) or tour (july), climb some of the mythical climbs (stelvio, alpe d'huez, etc.), and visit special places like madonna ghisallo, bastide d'armagnac, and musee du velo et de la moto.

i'd suggest searching crazyguy. wherever you might go and whatever you might do, there's a chance someone on crazyguy has been there and done that, and can share their thoughts about it. or pick through journals and such for ideas.

pel

Thanks Acantor had not thought of close passes. Committed to starting around April21. Will have to check out conditions once we have decided on a route through.

pel

Thanks for the route suggestions Brains. Certainly got us thinking. We have about six months of touring.

pel

Agreed my request is a bit broad but did not want to restrict the request. Your many tips all appreciated. Will check into Crazyguy. Many thanks Jabantik00

becnal

I might be good for a tip or two as well.

robi

Vienna to Prague... the Green Route or sg like that... a nice system of bike paths ... I tode from Budapest to Brno which is out of the way but met lots of ppl who had used the Green way/route and loved it.....

robi

flavio

I did Italy to Netherlands (via Vienna) and Italy to Denmark.

I think you are travelling actually... so have a nice ride!

flavio

I think it should be this:
https://www.pragueviennagreenways.org/

It seems very interesting!

robi

Flavio, yeah, that is it! thanks for doing the leg work!

I rode from hUngary to Bratislava, then along the river that flows into the Danube there up quite a ways and over into the Czech Republic on up to Brno. Nice times. I will look up the route and names of towns etc if anybody here is interested. But again, it would not be the most direct route for Italy to Norway.

Robi