Villa and Hotel Hub and Spoke Self-Guided Bicycle Tour in Tuscany

A great example of a combination seven-night self-guided tour that involved the hub and spoke concept with hotel changes but mostly three night stays in two different hotels is praised by a customer who just did this in May 2009:

"To Everyone at BikeRentalsPlus:

We just finished our self-guided tour of Tuscany and it was absolutely fantastic! Our bicycles were excellent, and all the arrangements worked perfectly (including the prompt and efficient responses to emails and phone calls during the pre-trip planning stages). Most importantly, the cycling routes were stunningly scenic and mostly traffic-free, far surpassing my expectations. The points of interest were also extremely well chosen, as were the accommodations. The Borgo Tre Rose (where we lodged for the first three nights) was particularly memorable, with an outstanding restaurant and a breath-taking setting, while our visit to the Abazzia Sant’Antima was an unexpected highlight of the trip. After our bicycle tour we visited Siena, Florence, and Venice, but sightseeing in these crowded cities paled in comparison to the experience we had on the bikes, where we had country roads and ancient villages practically to ourselves. It was much more exciting to discover a beautiful Duccio in a quiet church in Montepulciano, or a Giovanni Pisano on a deserted street in San Quirico d’Orcia, than to wait on line at the Uffizi to see more works of art than could possibly be seen in a day (and I say this as a trained art historian). Thanks for a great trip – we will definitely be back next year for more!

Signed,
Prof. MH
Professor of Art
New York State"

This is a great example of someone who wanted the independence of pedaling on their own without having to move daily but who also benefited from the expertise of a pre-designed bike tour. They also benefitted from the logistics which had already been taken care of.

Services provided on this tour included:
1) pre-tour consultation and travel advice;
2) bicycle rental of new, 30 speed Titanium bikes;
3)pick up at the train station, deliver y to the first hotel and bike fitting;
4) hotel bookings for seven nights;
5) pre-designed routes;

The links above explain the different services in detail and the photo shows the villa-hotel this couple used their first three nights.

For details on other options, bike rentals, and other services visit the Bike Rentals Plus!web site.

The "Piana degli Albanesi" Southeast of Palermo

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.

Southeast of Palermo is one of the most interesting villages in western Sicily - Piana degli Albanesi.  It is also located in a beautiful valley surrounded by limestone mountains.  Here, in the late 15th century Albanians fleeing the Turkish invasions were allowed to settle and build their own community.  There are several such communities in remote, mountainous areas of Sicily and Southern Italy. 

 

While positioning himself for his assault on Palermo Garibaldi rested a day in Piana degli Albanesi (then called Piana dei Greci) and initiated a false retreat which tricked the Bourbon defenders entirely.  Garibaldi sent is cannon and heavy artillery south on the main road to Corleone.  The Bourbon army, which had come out of Palermo to meet him thought he was in flight and began following the artillery.  Meantime Garibaldi took his sizable army and slipped into the night to back track on Palermo where he entered over the Ponte dell'Ammiraglio.  Garibaldi was quite proud of his ruse.  In his memoirs he wrote:  "it was not until two days after our entry into Palermo that the enemy commanders found out we had hoodwinked them and gone on to the capital whle they thought all the time we were in Corleone."

 

From Calatafimi Garibaldi entered Piana degli Albanesi through the pass in the left of this photo.  On my ride I crossed over that same pass. 

The photo below shows me pedaling out of "Piana" after spending the night. This was one of the most beautiful rides of the trip.

The Ponte dell'Ammiraglio in Palermo Dates to the 12th Century

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.

The Ponte dell'Ammiraglio was one of the main entry points into Palermo from the east side.  The morning of May 27, 1860 the Bourbon troops attempted a meager defense of the bridge to keep Garibaldi, his thousand volunteers and the few thousand Sicilian peasants from entering Palermo.  They failed and Garibaldi's rag tag army occupied and took the city within three days, blockading the Bourbon troops in the castle and in one or two other major buildings in the city.

There's no river under the bridge any more, though it was originally built to bridge the Oreto River. A flood in 1938 changed the course of the river and the widening of the Via dei Mille made the bridge obsolete. It now sits in a park as a monument to Garibaldi and his thousand.

The Original "Ice Cream Sandwich" is Sicilian

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.


Indeed, this is one of the best reasons to bicycle Sicily! The "sandwich" portion is like a sweet hamburger bun. Delicious!

Monument Commemorating Giuseppe Garibaldi's Defeat of the Bourbon Troops at Calatafimi May 15, 1860

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.

Garibaldi was famous among his troops and the general population for his bravery and spirited leadership.  Facing an uphill fight, literally (the Bourbons held the high ground) one of Garibaldi's subordinate officers suggested they retreat to sustain fewer loses.  Garibaldi's response, engraved on this monument was "Qui si fa l'Italia o si muore" - "here we make Italy or we die."  This was an expression of Garibaldi's life-long dream of creating a united Italy.  I visited here May 15, 2009, 149 years to the day of the battle.  Garibaldi and his "thousand" volunteers from northern Italy won the day, routed the Bourbon troops and sent a shiver of fear through the Neapolitan troops throughout Sicily and Southern Italy.  Garibaldi knew that psychologically this was a critical battle for his future success, hence his insistence to take the battle to the enemy.

Near Calatafimi is Segesta, one of the best ancient Greek sites in Sicily. While they rested in Calatafimi after their victory many of the "thousand" made the hike up to see the temple and theater of Segesta. Today tourists come from all over the world to view these great wonders of Magna Grecia.

The Cathedral in Caccamo, Sicily

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.

Sicily has a rich architectural heritage from its Byzantine, Muslim, Norman, and Spanish occupiers over the centuries.  The baroque churches come from the Spaniards.

Sicily in Spring is Green and Beautiful

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.

This was the Magna Grecia hat attracted the Greeks in 600 BC.  In the fall all of this will turn brown.

Rick arriving at the port of Marsala just like Garibaldi in May of 1860

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.

 

The Heart of Sicily - Gangi

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.

The view of Gangi from the west at 6 p.m. in the evening light reminds of a bee hive of human activity.

Designing Your Own Bicycle Tour

This post is part of a thread about a Giuseppe Garibaldi "themed bicycle tour" design and implementation in Sicily. To see the whole thread click here.
I've designed a lot of bicycle tours over the last 25 years. Indeed, one of the best things about this business for a geographer is to sit home in Colorado during the winter designing tours and then be able to go pedal the route and see how it came out. This takes practice, though, and I want to tell you an anecdote to warn you about the drawbacks of doing this.

In Sicily now I'm alone. Hence, I've not booked any hotels in advance and although I've got a route in mind I've already varied quite a bit from it. When you are pedaling alone nobody cares where you sleep, how far you ride, or how hard the ride is. That's the biggest drawback of designing your own route for family or friends. Everything needs to be pretty predictable as you'll always get questions such as where do we sleep tonight? How far is it? What's the hotel like? How much climbing is there, and so on.

The parent company of Bike Rentals Plus! - ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours has a great tour in the Dordogne region of France that I designed in 1995. But we heard this anecdote from three couples - customers - who came one year on that tour. It seems that the year before six couples had the idea of flying to Paris, renting couple of vans (6 people per van), taking their bikes, and heading off to the Dordogne for their own bike tour. So there they were the first day - they had booked the first few nights hotel, and they went out for ride. But the next day the weather was a little threatening. "Hey," somone said, "it looks clear to the west. Let's drive west for an hour and take a ride."

Now France is a great place to ride a bike - it's hard to go wrong. But it is also hard to just pick a spot and go riding. Those rides take planning, especially where there are 6 couples! It turns out that the three couples who came on our Dordogne tour the following year were so frustrated with the lack of planning, the driving around looking for rides, they decided to come back with a professional tour company the next year to do it right.

The moral of this isn't that you shouldn't designe your own tour. Go for it. But remember that if you have eleven other people to take care of, lodge, feed, and track evey day, you should do some planning. And to do that you probably need local knowledge. Today, many tour operators will design a tour for you for a fee. They might even arrange luggage shuttles to help from hotel to hotel. And some provide the service of recommending and booking hotels.

So, what do you do? Design your own or hire a professional? Above all it depends on your level of risk. Rent a villa and design your own rides locally. That's pretty easy if you get the right villa. Head out on a ride on your own. That carries low risk and high satisfacion if you are ready to jump on the train, make sure you've got your bike. But as you add people, make sure they are game to share the rish with you. Otherwise you are on the line and you'd best get some level of local help to make the most of your trip!

The Logistics of Bicycling Sicily on your Own

This is just a brief note on the logistics of getting organized and getting the right bike in Sicily for my trip. Bike Rentals Plus! has a fleet of bicycles near Bologna and they work with people all over Europe. My bike happens to be with the fleet in Bologna so I had it shipped off to one of our partners in Palermo, Sicily. So when I flew into Palermo I simply picked my bike up at the local supplier. If you were doing this you'd likely rent a bike (since shipping your bike internationally is expensive - see more on that here). Upon arrival in Palermo you would simply pick the bike up at the local supplier.

From Palermo I took the train to Marsala to begin my ride. Local and regional Italian trains make it really easy to roll on/roll off the train with your bike (most do anyway). So here I am in Palermo getting on the train for Marsala.

"Themed" Bicycle Tours - Exploring Italy through the Eyes of Italian Hero Giuseppe Garibaldi

One way to design a bicycle tour is to pick a theme - food, wine, history, architecture - you name it, and design your tour around that theme. Some of the most popular tours, indeed, are "themed" tours. Maybe you've heard of the Camino de Santiago along the historic pilgrimage route in Norther Spain, for example. Or a culinary bicycle tour in France or Italy.
Well, watch my postings over the next few weeks as I leave today for Bologna, Italy and then I head on to Palermo to begin following Giuseppe Garibaldi's historic route liberating Sicily and Southern Italy from the Bourbon King Francis II who ruled from Naples. Garibaldi took a thousand "red shirts" from northern Italy and launched a campaign that, over the decade from 1860 to 1870 resulted in the unification of Italy as we know it today.

That's me in my "Garibaldi" outfit. (I'll be working on my Garibaldi image over the next few weeks!) The "real" Garibaldi is below.

Picking Your Destination: What will the weather be like?

We get lots of questions about the weather from cyclists headed overseas.
What's the temperature?
What's the likelihood of rain? The photo above, for example was taken in late June in Kaliningrad, Russia with a group of cyclists. A summer downpour soaked us that day and we just had to go to plan B - put on our rain gear and follow plan A!

This article will direct you to the best weather and climate sites on the web so you can answer these questions yourself. And, so you'll know when you might want to take full rain gear, pants, jacket and all versus just a light rain jacket.

Guidebooks offer little help with weather and climate by providing "average temperatures" by month. What good is it to know that the average temperature in Paris in June is 62 degrees F.? Unless you know that averages like this are derived from the daily average of the high and low temperatures averaged over thirty days in June, you know next to nothing!

Average Temperatures - How Useful Are They?

Some guidebooks have now begun to provide average highs and lows per month. This helps a little more to know, for example, that the average low temperatures in Paris in June are in the low 50s F. (51.8 to 55.4 F. to be precise) and that the highs are around 70 (66.2 F. to 73.4 to be precise).

For active travelers who are often outside from morning until near sunset these highs and lows are very important and to know the slight changes that occur during the course of the month can be quite useful, especially during spring and fall. To use a different example, look at the temperatures in Tuscany in October: average highs in Florence are about 70 F. and lows are 50 F. But from October 1 to October 31 the average low temperatures range from 45 F. to 54 F., enough to cause you to throw in an extra long-sleaved jersey or two but not a lot to worry about!

So bring on the wonderful world wide web. Here's So you can find daily temperature averages for many places around the world. This article is interested only in Europe so we'll focus examples there, but learn to use this information and you'll be able to plan your packing for "average daily temperatures" at your destination.

The best web site I've found for this is the UK weather site where you'll find climate data for Florence, Italy which I've described above.

The best way to get to know these climatic statistics is to compare with a place you know well. Try your hometown or place of residence, for example. That way you can use the sensors you know best - your bare arms and legs!

A Colorado Weather and Climate Example

I'll use the example of Fort Collins, Colorado where we are based. If you replicate this exercise using your own town (or nearby town with climate data in the event your town is too small to be reported) you'll have a good understanding of climate and weather in your destination.

Fort Collins normally has a wonderful Indian summer in October. Bicycling and hiking in the foothills of the Rockies is wonderful, but it can be cold, especially in the morning. Here are the data:

Average monthly high temperature: 65 F. (not so bad)
Average monthly low: 35 F. (whoa! Chilly)
Monthly mean: 50 F. (not that great!)
Sounds pretty cold, actually.
But the range in monthly averages is very different:

Average range of monthly highs from Oct. 1 - 31 is from 71 degrees F. in early October to 57 F. in late October (indeed, until Oct. 15 average highs are above 66 F).

The average range of monthly lows is 41 to 29 F. (if you live in Colorado you know that you aren't in any hurry to start a bicycle ride early in the morning, but that after 9 o'clock, it warms up quickly!)

Look back at the Florence data in Italy and you see that the lowest average low temperature is 45 F. That's nothing for someone from Colorado! (Now if you live in Sacramento you know that your average lows range from 47 F. to 54 F.) You'll feel right at home in Tuscany in October!

Here's where to find these sites to begin your own personalized climate and weather odyssey.

For Climate data in Europe (usually calculated using averages collected over a 30 year period)
For current weather in Europe
For U.S. weather: You have to enter the name of your city or a nearby city to get weather data. Here I'm using Fort Collins:
Once you've found current weather you can get long range climate data by scrolling down and click on "Averages" (to the right of "36-hour forcast") to find your long term highs, lows, and rainfall.

See this example of Fort Collins climate data.

What about the rain?

I have not been able to find reliable, current, daily average precipitation data. They are collected, but apparently not widely reported yet on the web. In the sites listed above you will find average monthly precipitation. What is even more useful, if you can find it, is the number of "rain" days per month as well as total monthly precipitation. In August Dublin gets 7.1 cm. of rain (about 2.8 inches). Milan gets 9.7 cm. (3.8 inches). The difference, of course, in Milan is that all this falls in afternoon thunderstorms on, perhaps 8 days while in Dublin this is often ongoing drizzle 20 days in the month! It won't rain all day, mind you, but the day may begin with drizzle and end with sunny skies.

If you are aware of a good weather and climate site with good global precipitation data please let me know: Rick@ExperiencPlus.com.

The Bottom Line

We've been talking 30-year averages with all this. That means that you could go to Tuscany, Paris, or Ireland in an "off-year" and freeze to death OR enjoy unseasonably warm and clear weather. So always, in spring and fall, take rain gear and warm weather clothing. In northwest Europe ALWAYS take rain gear and warm clothing (this includes northern Spain).

A few myths about weather and climate

Once you know the latitude of a place you understand the weather and climate.


Wrong! Relative location to other features on the surface of the earth is far more important than latitude, especially in the mid-latitudes. What is "upwind" of your destination influences the climate more than latitude. Try Ireland in January, for example. Dublin is north of 53 degrees north latitude yet average low temperatures in January are 37 degrees F. Milan, at about 45 degrees north latitude averages 25 degrees F. as a low in January!

The difference is that the North Atlantic Ocean (and, to a lesser degree, the Gulf Stream) acts as a huge heater keeping Ireland warm in winter while Milan sits in a basin surrounded by mountains where it gets pretty cold in winter.

Here's a great web site about common misconceptions and misunderstandings about weather and climate.