“Cycle” rhymes with “eco”… Tourism

by Anna de Polo

If you have not yet decided how to spend the holidays, why not consider a cycling holiday? Doing some exercise outdoors, enjoying the scenery and discovering the pleasure of moving slowly can be a fun and healthy solution, which is becoming increasingly popular and affordable for everyone, even the least trained. There are lots of opportunities to use the two wheels for those who is not exactly an athlete and hasn’t spent the winter doing spinning: the solution is called "PEDELEC” (Pedal Electric Cycle) and is a bicycle with assisted pedal that allow to tackle hills and long distances with less effort, but without giving up exercise. To navigate the sea of proposals and opportunities, from mid-April the French nonprofit association Extraenergy placed online the internet platform "Tourisme & velos à assistance electrique” (Tourism and electric bicycles), an interface between designers, producers and customers/users which aims to centralize in Europe all existing offers and provide the public a better view of the market.

The cycle tourism, already widespread in some European countries like Holland and Germany, in recent years is gaining ground in Italy, where, however, a consistent policy on cycle throughout the territory is lacking, as explained in an interview with Autoambiente Antonio Dalla Venezia, President of Fiab (Italian Federation of Friends of the Bicycle). "We continue to request the creation of the National Service of the bicycle at the Ministry of Environment, a structure that is able to coordinate, encourage and promote initiatives in a uniform manner throughout the territory. This is an option adopted with success abroad that could perform many purposes, from promoting educational campaigns to promote cycling to the dissemination of local best practice, from the support to local authorities in the implementation of regional plans for bike paths wing to their integration into the national grid”.

The proposes of Fiab, emerged in the twenty-first National Assembly of the Association, held in Palermo April 16 to 18, rang from the project La Ciclopista del Sole (The bicycle path of the Sun), a bike trail that crosses the boot from the Brenner to Sicily, to the guide Albergabici which, together with the website Bicitalia, provides all the useful information for who travels in Italy by cycling. Another interesting and suggestive initiative is the recovery of old disused railway lines, to be converted into cycle paths (greenways). A good example comes from Liguria, where they were completed the first 24 kilometres of the first Italian greenway on the sea, a cycle track that connects San Lorenzo al Mare to San Remo, on a path of small villages and natural sites of great beauty. For those wishing to rent a bicycle, even electric, there are six points of rent along the track (www.nolobici.it). Some European countries are already far ahead in the recovery of disused railway lines: in Spain in the '90s they started the program Vias Verdes, which led to the conversion of 1700 kilometres of disused railways into greenways. Even in Holland, where the traditional culture of cycling is very rooted, hundreds of kilometres of bicycle paths, many of them on old railway lines, have been developed. For those interested in exploring Europe by bicycle there are a lot of offers for next summer: group tours with a guide (you can sleep in the cabin) from Amsterdam to Bruges, Belgium, between mills, dams and canals (www.girolibero.it) or routes along the banks of the Danube in Austria, while the luggage travel on their own between the various hotels where you spends the evening (www.funactive.info).

In short, cycle tourism loves communicating through the web and seems really for those interested of the new trend of 2010 there will be spoiled for choice!