Rome & Lazio cycling tours & bike holidays

Rome is the kind of destination that rewards arrival. Getting there under your own power, having cycled from Florence through Chianti, Siena, the Val d'Orcia and the hills of Lazio, gives the city a weight it doesn't quite have when you step off a plane. The Lazio countryside itself — particularly the volcanic lakes of Viterbo and the rolling hills south of Orvieto — is quiet and beautiful, far less toured than Tuscany, and all the better for it.

Rome itself is endlessly rewarding for the days after the ride ends. The scale of the city's history — the Forum, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, St Peter's, the Vatican Museums — can feel overwhelming; the trick is to walk, get lost, find a neighbourhood trattoria and let it come to you at its own pace. The city has been doing this to visitors for a very long time, and it's rather good at it.

Rome and Lazio have a Mediterranean climate — warm summers and mild winters. The cycling approaches to Rome traverse the rolling hills of southern Tuscany and northern Lazio, with some genuine climbs but nothing sustained. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons for cycling, with the final stages into Rome flat and manageable.