5 Reasons To Do a Rome Bike Tour
Rome is an amazing city, full of charming little streets and impressive monuments. Ancient columns, baroque fountains and renaissance palaces come together in an overwhelming display of beauty; With over 2000 years of history, Italy’s capital won’t leave anyone unimpressed. For newcomers, the question is, where to begin from?
Rome bike tours are the best way to get the most out of the city. Here are five reasons:
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1. See more, much more!
We all love walking around Rome’s cobblestone with a slice of pizza in one hand and gelato in the other one, but Rome is big, very big! Even for the most enthusiastic, 15 miles day after day are gonna get your feet full of blisters and your “to-see-list” half-way.
No matter how long you stay in Rome, it’s impossible to see it all. But the least you can do is trying. Bike tours are a great way of covering longer distances, allowing you to see different parts of the city, compare neighborhoods and decide where it’s worth coming back for the second session of pictures.
Consider bicycle tours that offer electric bikes if you are more the pizza and pasta kind of traveler.
2. Turn monuments back to life
Did you ever stared at a 2000-year-old ruin and thought “hey, it looks exactly like that abandoned house on my neighborhood”? Sure, many monuments in Rome will leave you opened-mouth only by looking at them, but having a tour guide explaining their historical importance, (and including some less-known anecdotes on Julius Caesar and his friends) will make the whole experience unforgettable.
Imagine the face of your father in law when you tell him that only 10% of gladiator’s fights ended up with someone getting killed! It’s the combination of history and beauty what makes Rome so amazing so I wouldn’t miss out on the explanations!
3. Forget about the traffic
Yes, Italian traffic can be a nightmare. You probably saw how passionate about driving Italians can be while you were on your way to your hotel. For many, this could be a reason to forget about biking, but you should not be discouraged. Luckily, most streets in the historical center of Rome are closed to traffic!
That’s right, many of its main monuments, such as the Pantheon, Piazza Navona or the Trevi fountain, are not accessible to private cars of non-residents. If you know which way to take, you can forget about the craziness that you experienced in Rome’s main avenues.
Of course, we can’t expect you to learn by heart which are the best roads to bike in the city. Guided tours have well-defined itineraries that combine the less chaotic streets with the most scenic views and the most impressive monuments. All you have to do is follow your tour leader and make sure that you keep your eyes open to appreciate all the beauties that hide in every angle of the city while pedaling.
Make sure that you find a company with a small maximum group size; you don’t want to find yourself biking with other 20 people.
4. Discover the soul of the city
When you think of Rome, apart from pizza and wine, many amazing places come in mind. The Colosseum, St. Peter’s Square or the Roman Forums are just a few. However, what really defines a city is not it’s main attraction (no matter how cool they are); it is the little alleys that reflect the soul of a city.
Let your guide take you on a ride through the many cozy backstreets that most tourists miss out; like via Margutta, the streets of the artists, via dei Cappellari, that used to be the place where “hat-sellers” were established. Biking through these and other hidden gems of the Eternal City will give you a better idea of how the city really looks like.
5. Burn off the pasta!
Last but not least, biking is great exercise! I can’t think of a better way of burning off all the pasta and pizza that you will eat during your stay in Italy. A plate of Carbonara (100 gr) has about 400 calories, which can be burnt in only one hour of biking!
We can put it this way, a few hours ride is like a pass to get as many guilty-free gelatos as you want. I am quite sure that some extra pounds are not part of the souvenirs you were thinking of taking back home, so, why not pedal-them off? And after all that exercise, be sure to take Somnio CBD cream with you to rub on your muscle!
Anyway, I am sure that you are gonna find other thousand good reasons to do a bike tour in Rome once you had tried it yourself!
