Alpe Adria radweg cycling itinerary
Which could be the stages of the itinerary?
Leaving from the city of Mozart, Salzburg - not before having visited this romantic town and its castle – you head south following the stream of the river Salzach passing through the old Celtic city of Hallein. This place is today known especially as tourist attraction due to the salt mines of Dürrnberg. Having crossed the Salzachöfen (a river gorge in the Tennengebirge Mountains, you meet the Hohenwerfen Castle, one of the most fabulous in Austria, and then reach the village of Bishofhofen where it’s possible to spend the night.
Continuing again to the south, the Alpe Adria cycle way a andons the stream of the river Salzach to go up to the resort of Klammstein entering the Gastein Valley where you have to pass through a tunnel on the railway. The cycle way crosses wild landscapes enclosed by the Austrian peaks which exceed 2000 meters. You pass through the thermal center of Bad Hofgastein and then continue till the last meters of ascent to reach Bad Gastein, at an altitude of about 1000 m in the National Park of the High Tauern.
Toward Italy by bicycle
The first one hundred kilometers of the cycle way are behind you among caves, thermal baths and castles and the landscapes on the High Tauern become moving. You’re obliged to go back to the railway to cross with another tunnel the High Tauern and going into Carinthia following for some time the stream of the river Möll. The Falkenstein Castle is surely a destination not to miss before reaching, along the itinerary which is a part of the Eurovelo 7, Spittal on the Drava where you start to follow the well-known Drava Cycle Path (Drauradweg) connecting Dobbiaco and Maribor in Slovenia along the stream of the river in Carinthia. Spittal has a particularity: it boasts the biggest private collection of miniature trains... weird isn’t’ it?
From Spittal you can visit the nearby Millstätter See and then continue to the south-east till the center of Villach without great difficulty, following again the stream of the river Drava.
Having traveled a little more than two hundred kilometers, you approach the Italian border and the Alpe Adria Cycle Way here deviates abruptly to the south-west starting a slight climb that from the village of Arnoldstein will lead to Coccau (the first Italian village) and therefore, already on the layout of the former railway, till Tarvisio, at the mouth of the Canale Valley. From this point to Moggio Udinese the Alpe Adria cycleway (in Friuli identified with the FVG1 route) mostly follows the route of the Pontebbana railway, dismantled and readapted to cycling track. Unluckily, as it often happens, Italy is still out of the loop from a cycle-tourism point of view and for some connection stretches you’re obliged to travel the state road (the connection works of the cycling routes should be over in a few years). The itinerary is mostly downhill and you reach the beautiful village of Venzone, the place of lavender which has been completely rebuilt after having been razed to the ground by the earthquake of 1976.
We were lucky to travel this stretch of cycleway on the secondary road flanking the Tagliamento and we advise you a deviation to Lake Cavazzo, in Gemona del Friuli or to the nature reserve of Lake Cornino to spot griffons.
The Alpe Adria Radweg bicycle route continues instead to the south to reach, without efforts, Udine.What to see in Udine
Udine, provincial capital inhabited since the Neolithic age, is worth a visit more in depth if you have at disposal a few hours or a whole day for touring across Udine by bike looking around in the most picturesque corners and the most interesting monuments. The via Mercatovecchio is the beating heart of the city and lies a few steps away from the most characteristic places of Udine. Behind this street indeed, in a position dominating the rest of the city, lies the castle hill reshaped after a violent earthquake in the XVI century. Today maybe it looks more like a Renaissance residence but inside supervises with jealousy one of the most ancient halls of the Parliament dating to the XII century. At the feet of the hill, besides the Mercatovecchio there is the Loggia del Lionello, in Venetian Gothic style, and the loggia and the small temple of San Giovanni with its picturesque clock tower. If you still have time wander by bike in Udine to discover its most hidden secrets, noble palaces and religious buildings.
