A Slow Adventure
Date: May 8 – August 1 2025
3507 km with 49,208 m climbing (5.5 times Everest) in 3 months.
Most gain in one day: 1555m, Biggest distance: 89 km
In May 2025 we set off on our bikes from Florence, Italy to visit Jill’s niece in Istanbul. That’s not what happened.
We had planned to bike across Italy, then take a ferry across to Rijeka in Northern Croatia so that we could join the Transdinarica , a recently developed cycle route that goes from Slovenia to Albania. The idea was to start at about the same latitude that we had reached during our last tour around Europe when we got to Pula at the bottom of the Istrian peninsula, discovering bureks and klapa music along the way. We liked Croatia, a lot.
We arrived with no bikes on 8 May after 36 hours travel, complained and filled in the forms in Italian and, well after midnight, took a taxi to Prato just north of Florence, and found the hotel after bashing on the door of the bank next door for half an hour. Back to the airport the next morning to be told that they had traced them to Frankfurt and presumably they were still there. Hint: take photos of your luggage with the airport stickers on them. We did some local sightseeing in Prato – like a mini Florence with a duomo and a quite good enough art gallery, but without tourists – and decided to be tourists in Cinque Terre and hopped on a train. Along the way we paused at the airport again and heard that they had found the bikes and that they would be there upon our return.
Cinque Terre was filled with shoulder season hordes, but staying for a couple of nights meant we had the place to ourselves, i.e. residential tourists only, in the evening as all the locals live elsewhere. We walked and trained the entire coast and had an excellent meal in the best table at the best local restaurant, dal Billy’s, for Jill’s birthday. Back in Florence/Prato we assembled the bikes at the airport and rode home, and after a quick shakedown cruise to Florence to get some cliche shots, we set off over the Appennines.
There was a small on-the-fly route correction required on the way to our first night at Barberino de Mugello as the “gravel bike route” selected by Komoot turned into an impassably steep and roughly shod track, so we backtracked to the the road and ran out of power just as we limped into our B&B. The directions said “4-5 km out of town” without mentioning the 15 – 20 hill up to it. A classic Day 1.
We had to stay an extra night at Barberino because there was no accommodation at the next conveniently distant town, and it was worth it for the barrel rolling alone. then up 700 m along with literally hundreds of would-be grand prix motorcyclists having the time of their lives while scaring the bejasus out of us. Pietremala was a haven, even though the only restaurant was was closed.
A really lovely day along a ridge for ages, then back down to near sea level, over some wonky stone tile “bridges” to stay at Faenza, home of Majolica pottery but thankfully also the bi-annual Oscars of ceramics, the Faenza award. 50 year old pottery memories…
A train to Ancona because it was flat and industrial and next day took the overnight ferry to Croatia.
Unfortunately the ferry to Rijeka wasn’t running so we missed out on one of the tidier parts of our itinerary. We had wanted to start at the same latitude as we had got to on our last trip but we had to go to Split, thus missing about 8 days of Croatia on the TD route, and we were missing the islands we had promised ourselves as well. We arrived at Split early enough that we could check out the big palace before the cruise ship crowds, explore the suburbs to find a genuine burek and relax on a beach before the afternoon ferry to Korcula where Jill’s brother Mark and Alison were quite coincidentally on their more organised cycle tour. We took a couple of days to explore the island away from the TMZ in the old town area – €7 for a coffee was an unbeaten record for the entire trip even allowing for the lovely sea view.
First night on the mainland was a climb to Sinj, and virtually no English spoken already. Next day a side trip north along the TD route to see the Eye of Croatia by way of an excuse to be in Croatia a bit longer. We stayed in the very remote village of Coric and it felt like this is what we were here for. Back to Sinj, then over the border to B&H. Livno felt like a loud, drinky Westie town with beaten up cars, cafes serving only coffee and booze for breakfast, very shouty conversations everywhere, and another SIM card because we had already left the EU. On to the splendidly named Tomislavgrad and then a very “interesting” ride on a very minor road where we found out what the TD designers called gravel – very rough, sharp chunks that we walked over in preference to shredding tyres. Mostar was an eye-opener with its intense old town TMZ and still totally shot up houses everywhere else from the seige in the 90s.
We avoided the TD route north with its 1200 m climb and long, “gravel” section, opting for the flat Ciro Trail towards Kotor in Montenegro,with stops in Capljana, Zavala and Trabinje, and just into Montenegro, at one of our favourite places on the whole trip, Meljine, near Herceg Novi (Newcastle).
Kotor Bay was full of cruise ships and we took a taxi up the famous Kotor Serpentine to Njugesi to avoid battling the traffic plus a 1,000 m climb (although that sort of ascent quickly became normal normal). We found a stupendous and almost completely empty brand new highway to Niksic where we finally managed to restore Jill’s rear tyre to tubeless and kissed goodbye to the P word. We broke the climb at Pluvine at a lakeside cabin before getting back to the TD route at Trsa. We slowly crossed the awe-inspiring Durmitor and landed in Zabljak for a couple of nights so that we could enjoy a chairlift-assisted summiting of a 2300 m peak, and bike and hike to a view of the fabled but disappointing Tara Canyon.
We absolutely needed eMTBs to get us to the very bike friendly and welcoming Guesthouse Sandra at Kolasin. Then we really climbed, then climbed some more to stay in the Best Place Ever on this tour at Stavna. Our descent the next day nearly froze us, being sodden wet with the first rain we had seen so far, and on a big downhill to boot. Gusinje was interesting with its connection to Ali Pasha.
Albania began with the bewilderingly atypical town of Tamare, followed by a creditable performance on two big climbs to Boge where we stayed for a day to enjoy the pool and a further big climb to where we could look down on the lisp-producing Theth. The route beyond Theth wath too arduouth for uth, involving camping as well as what the route designers called challenging gravel, which was therefore probably boulders and gullies. We instead found our usual challenging side roads towards Lake Shkoder – not as stunning as the breathless guidebooks would have you believe – and the very Italian feeling town of Shkoder which we were pleased to leave.
We nipped back into Montenegro to check out the oldest tree in Europe and the slightly less ancient but unspoiled Stari Bar while staying with spectacular views and a sublime seafood mini restaurant run by our host. Back into Albania for a flat and dull couple of days to Tirane where we absorbed the recent history of the Hoxha years and marvelled at the architecture. The next town, Elbasan, hides another unexploited very old town, a 3rd century Diocletian one very much like Split’s but less fortified. With no accommodation at the next point on the TD lower Albania route we opted for a direct connection to Librazdh which turned out to be more interesting than we had bargained for.
The day after, on the way to Radozhda in North Macedonia, we chanced upon a section of the ancient via Egnetia which once took Romans from the Albanian coast to Istanbul, and the local travel gods for taking us way off the marked roads and totally lost in a brand new country.
We glimpsed N Macedonia over the next couple of days in what is probably the most tourist laden area of that country, local tourists so there’s not much call for English, and there were pockets that were heavily TMZed, but it was nothing like the coastal zones
Back over a spectacular hill in Albania we stayed at Dolna Gorica, a village with livestock all over all the “streets” and similarly the next night in Kaminice, with the main difference being our hosts were milking goats rather than the cow. A very beautiful and atypically rubbish-free couple of days through the Albanian alps and down through the Kelcyre Gorge to our last night in Albania at Gyrokaster.
Saranda, the port city was ugly – there’s no other word for it – and Corfu, once we escaped from the coastal areas, was a real treat with its olive groves and small villages tucked in amongst the surprisingly steep little roads.
Brindisi at the southern end of the heel of the boot of Italy was a highly attractive port city, and as it was the end of the via Appia we decided to trace its route to Rome as much as possible, to give our route a bit of meaning and direction. We first checked out the coast, deciding that the nearest attractive beach was in New Zealand, so headed inland and came across our first trulli in the wild, tucked into old olive groves surrounded by stone walls. A night in the tidy and thankfully non-touristy Martina Franca where the passaggiata was still in full swing when we retired at midnight, and then a short, trulli-filled hop to Alberabelo where they have really made a thing of them, and we found where all the tourists hang out. They also go to nearby Locorotondo, possibly to see a town which so heavily overuses the letter “o” because there’s not a lot to see there that you won’t see in every other “old town”.
The last part of tourist style sight-seeing was Matera where we took a guided tour of the old cave dwelling area thereby hearing English spoken fluently for the first time in weeks. And the last as it turned out. From there on we were village hopping, deciding on the next night’s destination only after arriving at our accommodation, basing our decision on an algorithm based on distance (approx 50 – 60 km), affordable lodging, preferably with a kitchen, and a grocery store nearby. A village in preference to a town, definitely not a city, possibly with something interesting to see as well.
Some very interesting off roading with a small section of Roman road took us to Tricareco with a festival that night providing us with a dramatic midnight fireworks display. From there, on to Possidente via some old wine producing caves, to Cossa della Cadenze, rebuilt after the 1980 earthquake which wrecked everything around here. Mirabello had some interesting ruins and a great supermarket, there was another night in Campolaterra, then up a decent hill to the very picturesque Guardiaregia, up and over and through the Matese Regional Park, getting used to these endless days of nearly carless smooth roads, to stay at Isernia, again the only foreigners in town.
Nonna cooked a wonderful dinner at the small family run hotel outside Sant’Elia Fiumiorapido, we checked out the rebuilt abbey at Montecassino, then stayed a couple of days at Caprile with a new friend, Kaye.
Up into the hills again to Vico nel Lazlo, and next day to Zagarolo, via the properly old and untouched Genazzano. A long day in the rain through Rome along the via Appia, and straight out to the lagoon island of Isola Sacra, near the airport at Fiumicino where we spent the last few days packing the bikes, selling the batteries, and sorting out how to get us and 2 large bike boxes to the plane on time.
We would have been quite happy to miss the plane, really.
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