Italian Gravel Bike Coast to Coast Route

You are here: / Italian Gravel Bike Coast to Coast Route
Time to RideItalian Gravel Bike C2C Route

From the Adriatic to the Med

Ride into Adventure – (Work in Progress)

When you look at the shape and the width of Italy, including across the vast mountainous northern regions around Trentino, Lombardy and Piedmont,  the country is literally made for adventure – and made for the creation of a classic cycling route, from coast to coast. Then of course, travelling further down into Tuscany, you get the famous ‘white roads’ of Strade Bianche, twisting like fallen ribbons across the beautiful rolling hills of Tuscany. Add to this, the world-renowned Italian culture and the nation’s passion for cycling, and it seems obvious to develop a world leading gravel biking route from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean; a classic Italian gravel bike coast to coast cycling route. Better still – how about a few vineyards along the way!

This idea had been burning within our hearts for some time here at Pedalnorth, and we just needed a spark to initiate it.

Route details

  1. Cattolica and Rimini both have a great choice of cycling friendly hotels, with good storage, tools etc and superb rooms at a reasonable price.
  2. Our first suggested overnight halt is the small, historic town on Nostafeltria, with it’s small piazza’s and cobbled streets. It’s at the 50km point, as we believe that you should have time to enjoy Italy on this ride!
  3. After a ride of 80km, the quiet Tuscany town of Bibbiena awaits you, with it’s narrow streets and fortified towers from the 10th and 11th century.Nearby too, there are a few small castles to explore, if time allows.
  4. At the 210km mark, Florence awaits you.We recommend spending a day off here and make the lost of your trip into the cultural haven that Florence is. After all, you’ve over halway already!
  5. At the 265km point,Poggibonsi is reached and history awaits. There’s lots for the visitor to explore in terms of historical and architectural sites, like the Fortezza Medicea di Poggio Imperiale, the Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, and the Convento di San Lucchese.
  6. After a ride of some 70km, the beautiful small town of Chianni in Tuscany awaits, with narrow, winding streets and a quiet ambience.
  7. A short day is left now, with only 45km to Livorno on the mediterranean coast. Time a plenty to rest and relax and take in the scenery, having cycling some 380km across Italy, on some excellent gravel roads – including the white roads of Tuscany.

Take a Ride on the Wild Side

Conversations with cycling friends across Europe renewed our enthusiasm to try and develop a similarly challenging route to our succesful U.K. gravel bike coast to coast ride, taking in the history, culture and beauty that lies between the Italian  Adriatic and the Med, with a jaunt along the white roads of Tuscany, and a cultural visit to Florence.

Our initial conversations also discussed how we might take things further, and then develop our own epic Italian road cycling coast to coast route, tackling some of the famed passes, and maybe taking riders into the beautiful cycling roads of the Italian lakes and mountains  – yes, with a vineyard or two along the way! In effect, we talked about numerous adventure rides, and longer term, we believe that Italy deserves two great gravel based routes across it – one in the centre – which we are currently working on – and one in the north, skirting the lower hills, lakes and mountains of this beautiful country.

As of November 2025, we have a defined draft of the proposed main route, in a state where we will be ready to ride and check out the detail of the various roads and tracks, and establish the viability and how it knits together. It’s still a work in progress, but if you’d like to help us out by riding sections and emailing us, we’d be extremely grateful. Our plan now is to ride the route in its entirety as soon as possible, and to make the necessary changes. If you do ride the current  mapped options, then please bare in mind that we haven’t yet given these a final ride and check over. The decision to ride it at this point is down to you alone. Hopefully, we’ll have it all finalised quite soon.

Photo by Carlo Marzetti, Unsplash

Get Ready to Ride!

With lots of emails, calls and research, and endless hours of mapping and checking our ideas, we believe that we have a route worth riding – and what we believe will become a classic Italian gravel bike coast to coast ride. It’s a route  designed to maximise your cycling adventure, culture and history, and to take you to some of the finest gravel biking trails in Italy, with Pedalnorth.

And, as for the second part of the project, mentioned earlier; in 2026 we will be developing a northern Italy – Lakes & Mountains – option, taking in the epic Italian cycling passes, with a road and off-road version. Yes, over the next year or so, we’ll develop 2 epic cycling routes that take adventure cyclists across some of the best terrain and most beaitiful landscapes in the world – Italy!

Cycling the Italian Coast to Coast

It’s time for you to take a first look at the all-new, Italian gravel bike coast to coast route. We’ll be detailing the places to stay along the route(s), accompanied by maps and  gpx files to download, and lots of other useful information for gravel bikers and road cyclists alike. Our epic adventure cycling trip along the rugged and scenic trails of Italy  is currently planned to start close to Rimini on the Adriatic Sea Coast, before heading inland towards Florence and the dusty white roads.  After visiting several historical locations and overnight halts, where you can take in the history, you once again cycle towards the sea – this time, Mediterranean coast via the historic city of Luca.

Our Italian Lakes and Mountains gravel bike option is yet to be determined. In terms of the first route across Italy by gravel bike, we believe that we’ve put together one of the most beautiful off-road cycling routes in the world, and certainly, one of the very best gravel bike routes in the world.

Let’s take a detailed look at each of these amazing cycling routes below.

It’s Time to Ride – with Time Bikes!

Download GPX file

Rimini to Florence

Download GPX file

Florence to the Med

Free download for GPX file

We want to ensure that you have easy access to follow our new route. Unlike many other websites, we always provide navigational files for free. There’s no need to register or login or pay any subscription. Simply click the file above and load it onto your bike computer – then ride into adventure with Pedalnorth!

It’s Time to Ride – with Time Bikes!

Related Content

Gravel bike buying guide – choosing a gravel bike for adventure

Defining Cycling Culture and Style

Libertas – tackling gender based violence in Romania

Three Day Mountain Bike in Transylvania – Romania