Less than 48 hours from June 3rd, World Bicycle DayThe Friuli Venezia Giulia wins the 2024 award for the best cycle route in Italy. The region will be awarded this evening in Lucca during the ninth edition of Green Road Awardthe Italian Cycle Tourism Oscar, for Ciclovia Foothills. Second prize goes to Calabria for the Val di Neto cycle/pedestrian pathwhile the Autonomous Province of Trento takes the third step of the podium with the Green Road of Flowers.
An award for slow tourism
The Green Road Award is assigned every year to the green cycle routes nominated by the regions that promote holidays on two wheels with services aimed at slow tourism and two-wheel lovers. The jury chose from the 25 proposals presented by 16 regions, territories and autonomous provinces (each region could submit up to two applications). The prizes were awarded to the cycle routes that demonstrated they possess criteria of excellence: from design to construction, from promotion to equipment and signage, without forgetting the green services offered. But, in addition to the cycle routes that won the podium this year, the jury also wanted to reward with a special mention theApennines Bike Tour presented by Liguria regionWhile Legambienteco-promoter of the event, this evening will award the Sardinia regionin his first victory, for Il Santa Barbara Mining Route. Finally, the Press and Communication Award goes to Campania for the Silent Street.
The award in Tuscany, tribute to the “outgoing champions”
The winners will be announced this evening Tuscanymore precisely a Lucca thatwith Viareggio, won first prize last year for the Puccini Ciclopedonale.
It’s about the first cycle route with music which, between tradition and innovative ideas, brings together the cultural and natural heritage between Lucca and la Versilia, telling the life and places of Giacomo Puccini, whose centenary of death this year marks. It extends along the Serchio river for almost 60 kilometers from Lucca to Torre del Lago Puccini, on a flat route suitable for everyone, with mixed terrain. Furthermore, via QR code, with your smartphone, you can listen to the symphonies suggested at the various selected points.
The Pedemontana: between landscapes, history and intermodality
Friuli Venezia Giulia returns to the first step of the podium eight years after the 2016 victory with the Alpe Adria cycle path. This time he does it with the Pedemontana Ciclovia. It is a route of 180 kilometers – which is part of the national route Bicitalia n. 12 (Alpine foothill cycle route from Savona to Trieste) – between Sacile, on the border with Veneto, and Gorizia, on the border with Slovenia. It follows the line that ideally delimits the Alpine arc to the south, crossing a natural landscape with picturesque views and very important points of historical, artistic and food and wine interest: from the Friulian Dolomites, a UNESCO heritage site, to the Cornino nature reserve, passing through medieval cities such as Gemona And Pinzano al Tagliamento, Cividale del Friuli and the prized wine-growing areas and seven of the thirteen Slow Food presidia in the Region.
The route also passes through several of the most beautiful villages in Italy, such as Polcenigo, Poffabrothe medieval Venzonemeticulously rebuilt after the 1976 earthquake, Gradisca d’Isonzo, with the fifteenth-century fortress built by the Venetians with the contribution of Leonardo da Vinci. The route is suitable for everyone due to the comfortable surface, the average gradients of less than 2%, the services and assistance. The first half of the route runs parallel to the Sacile-Gemona, one of the eighteen tourist railways in Italy, allowing cycle tourists to also travel on historic trains. Furthermore, for the rest of the route it is possible to use buses with bike trailers. And it is precisely this intermodality that most impressed the jury and makes the route easily accessible, so much so that the region was unanimously awarded. In short, a business card for Friuli Venezia Giulia and for Italy in view of Gorizia Capital of Culture 2025.
Cycling among the scents and history of Magna Graecia
The second step on the podium of the Cycle Tourism Oscars goes to Calabria with the Val di Neto cycle path which runs for 42 kilometers along the ancient mule track on the left bank of the river of the same name, from the ancient thermal site of Burner up to the mouth on Ionian Sea. The route winds through an ancient area Magna Graecia where scents, flavors and colors of the Mediterranean scrub meet with the territory of six municipalities of the Crotone Marquisate made up of thousand-year-old castles, ancient sanctuaries, rock caves, wildlife oases, Roman sites.
This cycle/pedestrian path is also an example of responsible architecture as it was created with a careful eye on sustainability with the choice of eco-compatible materials, as in the case of the walkwaythe San Rocco. It also has dozens of access points that facilitate and diversify its use. There is no shortage of huts along the route for nature observation and hospitality activities. Calabria returns to the podium just two years after its debut in 2021, when it won first prize with Parks cycle path.
Among flowers, parish churches and trenches
This evening the autonomous province of Trento will climb to the last step of the podium with the Gren Road dei Fiori, a cycle-pedestrian route that unites in a single itinerary the Val Rendena and the Chiese Valley; 57 kilometers from Carisolo to the banks of the Lake Idro. Winding along the banks of the Sarca river, this cycle route is a ribbon designed and well integrated into a suggestive Alpine setting, in the Adamello – Brenta Natural Park, among parish churches and various artistic, but also historical testimonies such as walkways and trenches from the First World War. In spring, over 600 species of flowers paint the landscape that can be admired by cycling along the cycle path: the yellow of the dandelion and buttercup dominates in the meadows, but also the pink and red of the clover, the pale yellow of the rennet which was once used to transform milk into cheese, the purplish blue of wildflower. the elderberry, the fragrant mountain lime tree and the rare multicolored orchids near the lakes. Among the services offered to cycle tourists, there is also a shuttle bus upon reservation to return to the starting point at the end of the tour.
Special mentions. Apennines
The jury’s special mention goes toApennines Bike Tour, the largest sustainable mobility route in the country: it connects the Apennine ridge with a 3,100 kilometer itinerary on low-traffic secondary roads, connecting 300 small municipalities across 14 regions, 33 provinces and 56 protected areas including parks and nature reserves. The Apennine Cycle Route begins in Liguria at the Altar nozzlethe point where the Alps meet the Apennines, and ends at Aliain the province of Palermo. A large project for the development of internal areas, carried out in seven years of work, through the identification of the best low-traffic route in 44 stages. A real gateway to the many small villages of the Apennines. Next year the installation of the south to north signs will be completed and the secondary branches will be developed. Information on the itinerary is provided by a dedicated app and a paper tourist guide. Workshops and assistance stations have been installed in each of the 44 municipalities where the individual stages begin and end charging for e-bikes.
In the mining areas of Sardinia
Another mention comes from Legambiente and was awarded – for the first time – to the region Sardinia for the Santa Barbara Mining Route. It is a circular route of over 600 kilometers that starts and ends in Iglesias, in south-western Sardinia. The already signposted Green Road is approximately 360 kilometers long – a circuit with a mixed surface of asphalt, gravel roads suitable for vehicles and others, stretches of disused railway – through the mining areas of the historic regions of Inglesiente, Sulcis and Arburese-Guspinese.
Cycling in Cilento, between sea and mountains
Finally, the press mention goes to Silent Street, a cycle/pedestrian itinerary of approximately 600 kilometers on low-traffic asphalted roads in Cilento National Park, Vallo di Diano and Alburni, one of the largest national parks in Italy. It is a circular route with departure and arrival in Castelnuovo Cilento, alternating coastal and mountainous sections in 15 stages.
The numbers of cycle tourism in Italy
Cycle tourism, also thanks to the development of cycle routes enriched with various services, is growing significantly in Italy. In the 2023 have been registered 56 million cycle tourists in Italy, equal to 6.7% of the total presences in Italy. This is what emerges from Traveling by bike report 2024created byNational Institute for Tourist Research and Legambiente. Cycle tourism today has an increasingly important economic impact equal to over 5.5 billion euros by 2023, growing by 35% on 2022 and 19% on 2019, the last year before the Covid period.
