Ride Report July 2025
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| Lago Fedaia at Passo Fedaia |
Day 1 - Bolzano/Bozen
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| Debby likes our Business Class Compartment |
Since we were already in Salzburg visiting Mark and his family, why not take a cycling tour in the nearby Italian Dolomites! We booked train tickets to Bolzano for the 3.5 hour journey, just one easy connection in Innsbruck. Important booking tip: First class train tickets in these parts often do not include a seat reservation. You need to make them separately. I didn’t realize my mistake until the morning of the departure. All the first class seats were reserved! Luckily we were able to upgrade to Business Class and get assigned seats. It’s good we did, apparently it was a Feast Day and holiday and all the first class seats were taken! We would have been stuck standing or shuffling between seats!
We arrived at the Bolzano train station at 1400 and walked only 200 meters to the Park Laurin Hotel where we would start and end our cycling journey. Gianpaolo Fosco (GP) was helping the other couple on our trip get checked in so we introduced ourselves. Enrico Pizzorni, our other guide, had tried to meet us at the station but missed us there and caught up with us in the lobby.
Enrico was the lead guide on our 2016
Tour of Southern Italy,
2018 Ride Across England, and
2019 Tour of Franconia. We were especially happy that Enrico would be our guide and that Ciclismo ran this tour with only 2 other guests (Steven and Maria). Our other Ciclismo tours had up to 18 guests. It was more like a family outing than a guided bike tour. We would spend two nights in Bolzano, so I got busy putting my bike together, and getting Debby fitted with her pedals and saddle on her rental E assist road bike.
Our first activity was a guided walking tour of the old town area of Bolzano. This tree was growing in this square, and when the buildings were expanded and renovated they took extraordinary measures to save this old tree, so a new shopping mall could be added below the surface of the square!
The food market was closed when we started our tour at 1700, but the flower stands were still open!
This statue of Neptune included dolphins with heads that looked more like Javelinas than sea creatures!
Our guide was very informative, and often Enrico would add interesting points to narrative as we toured this wonderful town.
The main square was only footsteps from our hotel and had many great restaurants and excellent shopping.
We returned to the hotel after our walking tour for the first of many multi-course gourmet meals featuring local specialties. The routes, hotels, and meals are all carefully curated by the Ciclismo guides. We were especially lucky to have GP as our guide for this trip. GP lives nearby in Canazei and this tour is one he designed so we were treated to his favorite routes, hotels and restaurants!
Day 2 - Bolzano/Bozen
The only drawback of a van supported cycling tour is the daily packing and unpacking as we move along the route. On this tour we at least had two nights each at two of the hotels. Our route today would be a loop that would return to Bolzano, so no packing and moving the bags to the lobby today!
Our morning loop would take us
away from the Dolomites into the orchards and vineyards surrounding Bolzano. I must say that it is a pain to travel with your own bike (packing, hauling through airports and train stations, and reassembly); but those first few miles are especially joyous riding your own machine in a new place in the world.
Enrico leads the way on the bike today while GP drove the support van that would meet us for water and snack breaks along the way.
Great roads and trails with very little traffic are trademarks of Ciclismo tours. We both wore our Ciclismo jerseys from a previous tour in the perfect weather at the start!
This is the Sudtirol area of Italy. It is a bilingual area where German and Italian are the official languages. There are also valley specific languages/dialects. GP is from Canazei and speaks Ladin in addition to Italian.
Each day the guides provide a route overview with turn-by-turn cues, map, and GPS files. Today it looked like an incredibly hard opening ride. But that steep climb in the middle of the route is actually a funicular ride! We dismounted at the station and rode the train up while GP raced us to the top with the bikes in the van. So 2500 of the elevation gain for the day was on the train. But that still left 3000 feet over 37 miles, quite a stout ‘shake-down’ ride!
View from the Mendola Funicolar with the Dolomites in the distance.
A trademark part of a Ciclismo ride is the map overview where the guides provide a day by day review of the upcoming routes. GP points out the finer points of the tour to Steven and Maria while Debby looks on wondering what I had gotten her into!
We started in short sleeves, but with increasing clouds and 2500 feet of elevation gain thanks to the funicular, it was time to layer up for the descent back into Bolzano.
The village of Appiano was prepared for rain too and had the umbrellas out!
Parts of the route was on converted rail lines. We were often treated to smooth wide bike lanes on perfect grades where old rail lines once pierced the mountains!
Today’s route included a winery tour and tasting at the very modern Kellerei Bozen.
This is a modern winery that is a cooperative of 350 hectares of vineyards and 220 families. The vineyards are very small and the cooperative makes it possible to blend great wines from many vineyards.
After the tour it was a short ride back to Bolzano. As was common during the tour, the clouds threatened, but we only had rain a couple of the days, and then for only a short duration.
We finished the day with another great meal in Bolzano at a restaurant just off the main square. GP surprised Enrico with this special dessert. This was the 200th Ciclismo Classico Tour that Enrico has guided over the last 26 years. What a milestone! His mantra: Treat the clients like they are guests in your home! Debby and I feel like Enrico’s honored guests and are amazed by his skills and compassion as he guides us on these adventures!
Day 3 - Meransen/Maranza
Did we visit two towns each day? No the two names are the Italian and German names of the towns. Which is which, I couldn’t say for sure!
We left the city of Bolzano mostly on dedicated bike paths. Our route would use a historic train alignment that was replaced to accommodate newer and faster trains. These tunnels were quite long, expecially when the valley became steep and narrow.
We would follow Isarco-Eisack river upstream for about 25 miles of fantastic views and gentle climbing on the old railroad grade.
We had a regroup and coffee stop in the town of Klausen - Chiusa. The sun was out and after riding in the cool tunnels and shade of the steep canyons, it was a great stop
As we left town, we noted these snail signs pointing out the speed limit of 5 kilometers an hour. I think that means really slow!
Our next regroup spot was at the cathedral in Brixen - Bressanone. It was a beautiful building that was currently under renovation. Half of the pews were blocked off and a construction crane was parked inside. It’s open for tourists, but Mass is celebrated in another church on the grounds.
This monument is to honor local heroes who died in the wars over the years.
We had a wonderful lunch in the village of Raas - Rasa. The meal featured local favorites served family style. The highlight was the unexpected course of desserts. The powdered sugar crepes/pancakes were delicious, especially with the cranberry preserves. The fruit salad was great as well. That was a good thing as we still had almost 2000 feet to climb over 10 miles to get to our hillside hotel!
The Hotel Milla Montis was at the end of a typical uphill finish for an Enrico designed tour! A modern hotel with alpine accents, perched on a grassy slope!
Well it was worth the climb! A great room, with an even better view! The sun was shining on the patio, so I did a quick load of wash before heading down to the pool.
The pool was warm and comfortable. They had a self-serve bar with Stiegl beer from Salzburg. This was the Sudtirol Edition and was delicious!
The hotel’s restaurant had a Michelin star and again the food was fantastic! Good thing we did all that climbing today!
Day 4 - Innichen - San Candido
Looking down the valley, we could see how far we had climbed, yesterday’s route started in the distance from the valley below.
Today was a cool and crisp morning, but with a short climb to start it was easy to warm up.
We made our way down through cool forest switchbacks to a cheese factory, store and museum that featured cheeses from goat milk.
It was a very informative tour and we enjoyed a tasting after the touring the facility. We purchased a sample of hard cheese that would keep in the Van’s refrigerator. We carried it with us the whole trip, but forgot it in the hotel mini-fridge on our last night in Bolzano! D’oh!
Once we completed the cheese tour we continued on. The route again followed a river upstream so the climbing was constant but not too steep. The van is parked at the beginning of the day’s ’extra loop.’ I was interested in the climb to a nice lake, Debby felt that 4200 feet of climbing over 43 miles was plenty, and took off thinking I was going to ride the extra loop. After she was off, I decided to skip the extra loop and had to chase hard to catch up to her!
Back together as we roll in on bike paths to San Candido! We checked into the hotel and cleaned up. Before dinner, we had a tour of a Dolomites museum, so we hopped into the van and headed into town.
View from the parking lot of the Museum.
It was an interesting museum. In addition to the mineral exhibits, there were many fossil displays. The owner of the museum was a prolific climber and found many of the samples on display.
Go ahead you earned it! Preparing for dinner and an overview of the next days ride to Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Day 5 - Cortina d’Ampezzo
Debby making a personal gorp bag for today’s ride to Coprtina d’Ampezzo. Wait, where is the German name? Well we left the bilingual Sudtirol area and are now in the Veneto area of Italy. Still lots of German being spoken, but only one town name!
We had more gentle uphill climbing on the main route, with a combination of paved and gravel bike paths.
GP leading the way on the bike path along the Rienz-Reina river.
One last break before we started the extra loop climb to the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo. Neary 2000 feet of climbing over 4.5 miles! Coke, speck (bacon), and bananas, real power food. Better stock up!
Well that was something! It felt like my tires were glued to the pavement. The Giro d’Italia has finished stages here over the years, and it was killer climb!
Debby was a champ on the climb! She was especially happy with her rental E assist bike. For most of the trip she would dial up only enough power to keep up with my pace. But on this climb, with the steepness the grade and weight of the bike, she had to ride faster to get the full assist from the bike. During the tour, she worked just as hard as on her Calfee, but she was able to ride at a faster pace.
GP’s, Debby’s, and my bikes taking a break before heading back down the climb.
What took more than an hour to climb took 20 minutes to descend!
Beautiful lake at the base of the climb. Still more descending before the next climb!
We stopped at this minor pass for a photo, lunch was just up the road, then it was a short downhill to the hotel that would complete the day!
We enjoyed warm veal ravioli and speck dumplings. It was so close to the hotel, I even had a beer!
The view from our hotel balcony in Cortina. Lots of construction here, they will be hosting some of the Winter Olympic Games next year.
Another gourmet meal to finish a great day in the mountains. We’ll stay here two nights!
Day 6 - Cortina d’ Ampezzo Rest/hike day
We have a short hike and recovery day today. We had breakfast in the hotel and I jumped in the van for the ride up to the Passa Valparola. We had a short hike through the pass and along a series of WWI trenches that the Austrians built into the rugged terrain.
We started the hike at the pass, and hiked around this small lake on our way to the trenches from the Austrian line during WWI
This line of stacked rock is an old trench that has not been restored.
Volunteers have been slowly restoring the trenches and huts in this area. This was a strategic point along the line and had open views toward the valley toward Italy.
The Tre Sassi Fort was built between 1898 and 1901 and was reinforced to withstand heavy bombardment from the Italian guns. On July 5, 1915 the fort was bombarded by the Italian artillery placed on Mount Cinque Torre. The shells penetrated the roof and heavily damaged the structure. The fort was abandoned, but Austrian patrols would illuminate the fort at night, in order to make the Italian artillery think it was still operational. Thanks to this strategy, the fort was pounded through the month of July 1915, causing wear and tear of equipment and waste of Italian ammunition that could have been directed against the nearby Austrian positions.
The fort is now a museum that contained artifacts and displays from the war and was very interesting. What does it say that the only photo I took related to the thriving brothel industry that served the troops!
The fort has been partially restored to house the museum, but portions of the walls were left in ruins to show the extent of the destruction.
We had a short hike to the Italian lines at Cinque Torri. We stopped at this refugio about half-way for provisions.
Striking peak on the way to the Cinque Torre (5 towers).
We took advantage of the chairlift to reach Cinque Torre. There are actually more than five towers! This is a skiing and hiking Mecca, and the trails were covered with tourists, hikers, and climbers.
We had a wonderful lunch at the refugio before hiking to the towers to inspect the Italian lines.
Italian fortifications around Cinque Torres. Most of these have been restored, and some positions had historic artillery installed.
We returned to the hotel in time for Deb and I to attend the vigil Mass at the cathedral only a few steps from the hotel.
A few more steps took us to a great restaurant and these wonderful pizzas! Should we share one or get one each?
We had to load up, day 7 would be the hardest of the trip, 8000 feet of climbing over 50 miles, so we enjoyed two!
It started to rain after dinner as we passed this countdown display to the Winter Olympic Games! Luckily it was a short, but brisk walk back to the hotel!
Day 7 - Canazei - Cianacei
We rolled out of the hotel and quickly decided that we needed gloves for the first climb of the day!
We had 2 of these 4 passes on today’s agenda, roads were open and we were on our way!
These long passes have consistent grades, and on a Sunday morning, we had very light traffic.
We saw a few sheep on the side of the road so I slowed for a photo. Turns out the whole hillside was covered in the furry beasts!
Pass number one was in the books. We layered up after this photo for the cold descent, and light rain that would accompany us to the base of the next climb.
Rain and cool temperatures were the order of the descent.
Soon the sun came out, the raingear went back in the bag and we started the 33 switchbacks that would take us to the top of Passo Pordoi-Grau!
The pass finally comes into view.
Looking back at a series of switchbacks and the valley we climbed out of!
Each switchback had a marker, this was #33 and the last before the top!
Typical pass sign covered with stickers from clubs, so many that you can barely read the sign.
At the pass, a monument to Italian cycling legend Fausto Coppi. He dominated cycling in the post WWII era. 5 Giro wins, 2 Tour de France wins, World Champion on road and track, multiple Monuments and Classics. He set the hour record in 1942 and held it for 14 years!
Bundled up and ready for the next descent. My neck gator was from our New Zealand trip, Debby’s was from our trip to Norway this year!
For some reason, the switchbacks are a lot more fun on the way down!
We stopped for lunch at Krampus Bikers and found a spot in the sun to warm up! It was only a few more miles to the hotel after lunch and Deb decided to skip the extra loop for the last climb of the day! Partially because she had a spa treatment booked and partly because her E assist bike battery was nearly spent!
Lago Fedaia at the top of Passo Fedaia.
GP and I headed out and up for the climb to Passo Fedaia. We had more rain on the climb, but it cleared up when we made it to the top. Lago Fedaia sits at the top of the pass and the base of Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Dolomites! The road was nearly dry for the very fast descent back to the most excellent hotel of the trip, Hotel La Cacciatore!
While GP and I were riding the last climb, Debby was enjoying a massage. When I got back I had time to enjoy the whirlpool and catch the last 30 km of the Tour de France on the TV. What a way to end a great day in the mountains.
Dinner was fantastic. The duck was prepared to perfection, and the mango mousse with the Grand Marnier eggs was very enjoyable!
Day 8 - Bolzano - Bozen
The morning view from our room at Hotel La Cacciatore!
We followed downhill bike paths for the first 10 miles of the ride.
We had one last climb for the trip, about 5 miles of 7% grade, but the sun was out and it was quite enjoyable. We decided to wear our new Ciclismo jerseys for the final day of riding!
Our regroup spot was at this pass. These two horses were fighting off a swarm of flies and Deb went over to help them. It worked for a while, but then we had to get going and the horses were in their own. Heavy rain was in the forecast and we still had some steep descending to get back to Bolzano.
We cleared the steep descent but still had a few rollers as the clouds darkened. Our guides suggested we take a slightly different route to beat the rain.
It worked and we arrived at the hotel in Bolzano before the rain and with plenty of time to pack up the bike, do a little shopping, and get ready for the last event of the tour, a brewery tour and beer garden dinner.
Well, actually we arrived early at the brewery to get a little jump on the tasting, and Marie took this shot of us preparing for the beer tour!
The tour was fantastic, the best part was that our guide served beer along the way. At this stop, he actually filled our glasses from the tank just behind him!
The dinner did not disappoint! Pork leg and speck potato dumplings for me, wiener schnitzel with fries for Deb. Washed down with fresh Batzen beer and a Coke Zero!
Enrico guided us to this excellent gelato shop for dessert, and we enjoyed it on the walk back to the hotel (photo by Marie).
Day 9 - Arrivederci!
We met in the hotel restaurant for breakfast and said our good-byes. It was a fantastic trip, especially having Enrico guide us again and meeting Gianpaolo. Steven and Marie were wonderful to share the journey with.
It has been six years since our last Ciclismo trip, and we really had a great time. We have enjoyed the ship based cycling tours, but on these Ciclismo trips you really get immersed in the route. While it’s a pain packing most mornings; the routes, activities, and restaurants are all carefully selected and woven into a great experience. We will definitely be doing more trips with Ciclismo!
Hope you enjoyed the ride!
