The Adige: from the mountains to the sea Introduction

Published on:  | Last updated: 17 March 2018

I’ve just published a guide to the Via Claudia Augusta - which also follows the Adige as far as Verona. The new article includes a lot more inform­ation about things to see and do along the way. I’m going to update this series but in the meantime you might also want to read the articles about the Via Claudia Augusta.

This route takes you from the Alps to the Adriatic. From the border to Verona the route is almost entirely on tarmac-surfaced traffic-free cycleways. From Verona there is a stretch on roads and the final section the last section through the provincia di Rovigo is mainly on unsur­faced roads - although you could cross the river and follow the river on quiet provincial roads.

The route takes you through Italy’s apple country of the Südtirol, where you will pass through mile after mile of apple orchards, which then give way to vineyards. It takes you close to the cities of Meran (Merano), Bozen (Bolzano), Trento, Rovereto and Verona. 

Options

The Via Claudia Augusta route runs from Donauwörth in southern Germany and follows the Adige until you get to Trento where one branch turns off towards Feltre, Treviso and Venezia, while another continues on towards Ostiglia and the Po.

The Ciclabile Valle dell Adige and the Ciclabile Valle dell’Adige (Sole) form part of the Ciclopista dell Sole (link opens in new window) which takes you to Bologna, Firenze and Roma. Or you could pick up the Bicitalia Ciclovia Tirrenica (link opens in new window) which takes you from the Verona to the Ligurian coast.

At the end of the route you could head north following the Islands and Lagoons of the Adriatic coast route.

When to go

May, June and September are probably the best times - the Adige valley can get very hot in July and August.

Map and altitude profile

Powered by WP-GPX Maps

tips for using the map

Map screen grab

Run your cursor over the graph to show the elevation, and distance from the start, for any given point on the route. (Note: the altitude graph is not shown where the route is flat).



map detail

Click the little icon in the right-hand corner to see the map fullscreen

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Downloads

Maps to print out or view offline

About the maps

The maps are in two versions: A4 portrait format - for printing and maybe also for viewing on an iPad, and A5 for smaller tablets and smart­phones. (A4 and A5 are inter­na­tional paper sizes).

 sample map page.

Links open in new windows unless you ‘save as’ etc.

GPS files

  •  The Adige from the mountains to the sea gps files
    (.zip file containing 5 gpx track files)
  • Italy Points of Interest

    About POIs

    POIs are like waypoints, but while you can usually only store a limited number of waypoints on a device, you can store thousands of POIs. These files include inform­ation about campsites and hostels, bike shops, train stations, drinking water sources as well as warnings for tunnels and roads where bikes are banned. Please check the ReadMe file for instruc­tions. Updated April 2018. The file format is only compatible with Garmin GPSes .

More information

Places to stay

There are lots of campsites along the route - although these are much fewer on the southern part of the route between Verona and the coast. 

There are also lots of hotels. The Via Claudia Augusta website provides a useful listing.

Transport and services

Trains

There are national and inter­na­tional train services to and from Bozen, Trento, and Verona. There’s also a local train that will take you to Malles near the start of the route (note these trains are run by the Südtirol and not by trenitalia. In 2011 I paid 4€ for a bike ticket (trenitalia bike tickets are not valid). 

Articles in this series

Get in touch

Please get in touch if you find any errors in the information, or if there’s anything, good or bad, that you’d want other cyclists to know.

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