Casual Biking in Italy?

After getting all psyched about a bicycle-friendly trip to the Netherlands,
my wife and I just found out that the time share we were going to take there
doesn't exist.

Now we're thinking Italy. We've never been there, but we don't really want
to do the Rome/Venice/Florence "tourist" thing. We'd rather find a village
full of real Italians who use bicycles to get around much of the time.

A bicycle tour wouldn't work for us, as we will be tied to a time share
location. Plus, my wife is not into long, scheduled rides. What we want is
to be able to ride to dinner on bikes, see the countryside by bike for an
afternoon, and ride to town for capuccino and a canoli at the end of the
day.

Any ideas of where we should go?

NY Rides wrote:
After getting all psyched about a bicycle-friendly trip to the Netherlands,
my wife and I just found out that the time share we were going to take there
doesn't exist.

Now we're thinking Italy. We've never been there, but we don't really want
to do the Rome/Venice/Florence "tourist" thing. We'd rather find a village
full of real Italians who use bicycles to get around much of the time.

A bicycle tour wouldn't work for us, as we will be tied to a time share
location. Plus, my wife is not into long, scheduled rides. What we want is
to be able to ride to dinner on bikes, see the countryside by bike for an
afternoon, and ride to town for capuccino and a canoli at the end of the
day.

Any ideas of where we should go?

Have your checked out the "bike hotels" in Italy?
http://www.italybikehotels.it/en/regioni.php

Last year I stayed for two weeks in one, call Hotel Fedora, in Riccione
on the Adriatic coast. It was ideal because there were two daily
groups, one moderate and one brisk, that toured the local country side
from my hotel. There we also about six other hotels nearby which you
could join their rides. There is bike storage and repair room, daily
wash of your bike kit, and lots of great food. It had the added
advantage of being right on the beach, so my partner could hang out
there when not in the mood to ride.

I am going back to a different hotel in the same group this year. Its
a great way to explore an area and not have to drag your stuff around
every day. I can't figure out why more hotels to see the value of such
a program. My hotel was full of Europeans. In fact, we were the only
native English speakers.

NY Rides ha scritto:

What we want is
to be able to ride to dinner on bikes, see the countryside by bike for an
afternoon, and ride to town for capuccino and a canoli at the end of the
day.

try:

http://www.adriabike.it/

nice places, nice people, great food (at least in general, dont know
the particular hotels). No cannoli :-) it is not the italian place they
are from.

Fabio(lo)