Cycleways, new roads for Europe

Cycling from Verona to Florence, from Venice to Turin, from the Caposele’s river sources to Santa Maria di Leuca. And in Rome a ring path only for cyclists, the GRAB, the “bikes’ great ring road”.

For the first time the government is funding long-distance cycle routes, real "bike’s highways" designed to launch cycling tourism and, above all, to attract foreign tourists, ready to cross the Alps to visit Italy on the pedals, completely safely, just as they have been doing for decades in their countries.

The new Stability Law allocates 91 million over three years for the design and implementation of a touristic cycle ways’ national system: priority given to the stretch of the "Sun Cycle Way" Verona - Florence, to "VenTo", imaginative acronym of the route Venice - Turin along the Po, to the "Puglia Aqueduct Cycle Way" and to the "GRAB", 44 km connecting the Colosseum, Appia Antica, parks and river system in Rome with newly built neighborhoods.

This was made possible by local groups and committees lobbying, by social media’s pressure and by the commitment of some regions. An example? To get the bike path along the Puglia Aqueduct it has been formed a coordination of 56 associations and 20 companies, local tourist associations, hotel companies, tour operators.
Further north there is “VenTo”, a project of Milan Technical University: 632 km from Venice to Turin and 47 Km from Pavia to Milan, for a total of 679 km. It will be the longest path in southern Europe and it will produce a flow of 300 thousand passages per year (the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia works to extend the cycle path from Venice to Trieste).

The trump card of these cycle ways is their belonging to the European cycle network. VenTo, which in the European system is part of Eurovelo 8, intersects with Eurovelo 5 in Pavia (arriving from London and Brussels and going on to Rome and Brindisi), and in Mantua it meets Eurovelo 7 (running from North Cape, passing through Berlin, Prague, Lienz and then enters Italy in Dobbiaco with the Sun Cycle Way).

And to encourage the train + bike formula, the stability law also provides funding to the Velostazioni, bicycle parking at railway stations with workshops and dining areas.

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