Sudtirolo, the Italian Cycling Paradise You’ve Never Heard Of (Video)
Südtirol or Sudtirolo. South Tyrol. The Italian Dolomites. Whatever you call it, the NE corner of Italy was our favorite cycle touring location from our trip through Europe.
A German traveler first insisted we visit this place, a sentiment echoed by other people we met along our way. They were right; the little-known, sparsely populated region is a captivating area. I could see myself living there for an extended period sometime.
Castles (not for rent, unfortunately) and a bike path by the river. Woot!
South Tyrol lies in Italy’s far northeastern tip. It is distant from Rome to the point of autonomy, and even retains most of its tax revenue rather than passing it along to the national government. The region was formerly part of Austria (almost 3/4 of people speak German as their first language) and retains that country’s efficiency and organization. On the other hand, its capital, Bolzano, has won the Italian “best quality of life” award. (In fact, all menus and signs feature both German and Italian.)
On top of that, throw in a stunning mix of scenery and riverside cycle paths through mountain valleys or through picturesque Italian towns. Fair warning that even with the bike paths, there are some long, steep climbs! The mountain biking was also awesome, and I can’t wait to get back to explore more of that realm.
A “rest day” mountain bike ride in Resia. 40 miles, three countries (Italy, Switzerland, and Austria) and most of the climbing done via gondola. The Europeans know what’s up.
If you are planning to cycle here (do it!), the links and details are in my logistics post about bicycle touring through Europe. Everyone else just check out the photos and video documenting our two weeks in this cycling paradise (email subscribers click here, web visitors can watch the embedded version below). I finally bought some real video editing software and had a great time trying new features and honing my video production skills on this 2.5 minute compilation. More to come…
A flooded valley now sports this church spire in the middle of the lake.
A rest day and long walk along the water in Resia.
An evening rainbow on the mountains behind Toblach, Italy.
This dual wavy bridge was curved both sideways and up/down. It’s part of Bolzano’s stellar bike path system.
Chelsea pedals her way up a climb toward Austria.
An evening view of the Alps across Lake Resia.
I like it – looks beautiful. I like the video too – so I have to ask what editing software did you use?
Thanks Megan, I appreciate it. The program is Cyberlink Powerdirector 14. It has a ton of great reviews online and I found it quite intuitive to use, even for stuff like key framing, panning, etc. For $100, it’s a deal. GoPro Studio kept crashing and their usability sucks, so I’m glad to be done with it!
Great video! Looks like an awesome place for awesome people. My buddy, Eric, skied in Northern Italy with his family when they lived in The Hague. They all speak German so language was no problem.
How did you get the shots of the two of you riding to pan? Did you have a helper or is that software magic?
Cheers!
JB
Who do you think I am, Johnny Depp and his entourage of film makers? No support crew on this tour, just software magic! The GoPro shoots a wide image and then there’s room to pan.
I just started playing around with that, but basically you set a few “key frames” in a clip with the zoom/crop set and transition to the other crops through the video. Pretty quick to do once I got the hang of it!
Most people in Sudtirol also spoke great English. Not a big deal, just trilingual…geez.