ALPE-ADRIA-RADWEG Ciclovia Alpe-Adria Bike tour

On July 5th, 2019 - after a nice overnight stay on Camp Seehof at Vassacher See (North of Villach)

- we started our 4 day bike tour to Italy along
the ALPE-ADRIA RADWEG from Villach to Grado (~210km)


LINK --> Alpe-Adria-Radweg

The first day was a 40km (mostly uphill) tour:
Beginning in Villach, then along the Gail Radweg towards the border to Italy at Arnoldstein.

 

Right behind the old border station, the offical italian part of the "Ciclovia Alpe Adria" began with a hard uphill path and then along a very beautiful former railroad track towards Tarvisio.

After a short stop in Tarvis, we followed the track along the beautiful plateau between the Italian Alpe Giulie and the Austrian Gailtaler Alpen towards Camporosso.
We had a reservation for a nice room in an old town house (Stella D'Oro) in the center of the village. After a shower we took the cable car to visit beautiful Monte Lussari

The 2nd day started through the "Ciclovia Gate" 

and then we had a beautiful 60km downhill ride along the old railroad track through the narrow Val Canale /Kanaltal passing by Pontebba and Chiusaforte 

The old railway station of Chiusaforte is now a bar and was perfect for our lunch stopp!

The bike track then followed the wide valley of river Tagliamento. Unfortunately the track was under construction between Moggio Udinese and Carnia and we had to drive along the road (sweaty hot!). An ice cream stop in Venzone gave us energy again for the last 10km to Gemona.

Venzone (destroyed by an earthquake in the 70th and been rebuilt)

Gemona (with earthquake memorial museum)

We had a pre-booked overnight stay in Hotel Si-Si and an Sunday evening sightseeing walk in the very silent and empty old center of Gemona (and difficulties to find a restaurant in a heavy thunderstorm).

On the third day we left Gemona through a large forest and then many hills up and down through tiny villages towards Udine. 

50km later we reached the forest of Udine for a nice lunch stop and then drove to the city center for our pre-booked room in Dullio's "Cuore del Friuli"(a room in a private appartment). After a shower and a rest we had a very nice sight seeing evening and dinner in the old city center.

Udine

The last day was a 57km tour trough very flat lands passing by fields and villages with a nice stop in Palmanova

It was very hot and we needed another stop and lunch break in Aquileia before we finally crossed the 5km long bridge to GRADO :-)

We spent another day in Grado at the beach (unfortunately the weather was not so nice and hot anymore) before we took the bike shuttle bus (Alps2Adria) back home to Villach.