High times in Italy
With northern Italy slowly warming in the summer sun, now is a glorious time to hop on the saddle and explore the area by bike. Utrack’s five-day trip wheels through the South Tyrol to Verona, providing cyclists with an archetypal slice of the Veneto region en route, all towering peaks and red-roofed towns. Bolzano is the starting point and the place to load up on Alpine cheese and ham before setting off along the Adige, a river that rises in the Alps and runs all the way to the Adriatic. Pedalling by apple orchards and spire-pricked villages, cyclists reach the frescoed buildings of Trento and continue to Lake Garda, and the opportunity to swap bike for boat. It’s an easy last leg to Verona, a Roman trade hub, and home, allegedly, to the balcony beneath which Shakespeare’s Romeo declared his undying love to Juliet.
A cyclist trundles over cobbles in Piazza Filzi, Rovoreto, en route to Verona