1st Umbria: Trail spot on Lake Trasimeno
When politicians and celebrities from the music industry talk about their holidays in Italy on television, you always ask yourself: where do they go if they want to remain unrecognised and relax in peace? Lake Garda, the Dolomites and Rimini are probably out of the question. Too much hustle and bustle, too many German holidaymakers who might recognise you. A city trip to Rome or Florence is also likely to be difficult in this respect. Okay, to cut a long story short - we found out by chance on one of our research trips: You're travelling to Umbria. The only Italian province that has no access to the sea. It also has no glaciers, no 3000 metre peaks and no spectacular volcanoes. So the question is: why are they travelling there?
In any case, we knew why we were travelling to Umbria. Because even trial legend Hans "No way" Rey bought a house there. In the middle of the beautiful but, by Italian standards, rather unspectacular hills on Lake Trasimeno. We quickly realised that we had to take a closer look at this region in terms of trails. We were guided by Silvia, Hans Rey's sister, who has been running a bike resort in the Umbrian town of Panicale for several years. She also showed us the village alleyways where the holidaying celebrities meet for pizza.
2nd Piedmont: Panorama ridge trails in the Valle Maira
The second Italian insider tip, which has inexplicably not yet been recognised by the big bike tourism industry, lies in the Western Alps: the Valle Maira. If you come here to southern Piedmont, you have to be fit: kilometres of military roads stretch visibly up into the high alpine border region towards France, but then wind their way back down into the next valley, just as long and winding. Along the way, you will come across plenty of relics from the Second World War, when Italians and Frenchmen faced each other here with grenades and explosives. Today, the Valle Maira stands peacefully for high alpine ridge paths, treeless panoramas and hours of trail fun. Before heading back to the quaint villages in the evening, where warm people and rustic cuisine await.
3. sardinia: The wild trail centre on the east coast
The second largest Italian island really does have something of "God's footprint": legend has it that God took the best of all the continents to create Sardinia and stamped the whole thing into the Mediterranean with his foot. He couldn't have known at the time that epically long trails would be necessary for perfect happiness. But it doesn't matter, because the energetic village community called "Fura Grabas" (goat thieves) in the small mountain village of Ulassai likes to head out into the typical table mountain landscape on the east coast with a shovel and ice axe. It is sensational how many kilometres of trails now wind around the typical table mountains of the region.
Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
