Day 1 on Italy’s Adige bike path: We get flagged for speeding while biking downhill

We’ve been telling everyone that this bike trip in Italy is all about going downhill, from the mountains to the valley and Verona about 180 miles away.

After just 12 miles between Resia/Reschen and Malles/Mals (every town here has an Italian and a German name), we can say we weren’t kidding.

Sure, we had to pedal sometime. But we also had some short but so sweet steep descents … with, crazily enough, a couple of those electronic speed signs that tell you how fast you’re going.

The first time, we were clocked going 42, 43 kilometers per hour, or about 25 mph.

The speed limit is 30 kmh.

Oops.

Now I can go faster than that on descents at home, but I’m on a wide road. This bike path is paved but much narrower — 8 feet across? — and has cyclists (and walkers!) going in both directions. We’re there late afternoon on a Monday in October, and it’s empty. I imagine it’s another story all summer long.

So how did we get to Resia, just 3 km shy of the Austrian border?

It really began the afternoon before, when we arrived in Verona. Fingers crossed, the flight was on time. Our five-day bike rental began Monday morning, but Itinerabike let us pick them up late Sunday afternoon at no extra charge. An October perk?

That’s why we could take the 8:06 am regional train from Verona to Bolzano, then a quick change for the train to Merano. Modern trains, with space for bikes (and in winter, skis).

We go through a tunnel soon after leaving Verona. What does that mean for the bike ride back?

But that thought fades as I stare out the window, enthralled as the mountains close in on us, as we whizz past vineyards and fruit trees while catching glimpses of the bike path.

Yay, the train to Mals is running straight through! No need to take a shuttle bus for several km because of work on the tracks. And no need to put the bikes on a separate shuttle — though bikes aren’t allowed on the train over lunch. So we’ve got to wait until after 1 pm before we can get on our final train of the day. No worries, we can see a bit of Merano, an upscale spa town. Not my type of place so that’s all I need.

That bus I wanted to take to San Leonardo and another mountain pass? No bikes allowed.

But it’s great to see signs for bike trails in all directions.

We get to Mals, almost 3500 feet above sea level, shortly before 3 pm. Yes, it’s a long day of travel, but the sun is still shining and the bus for Reschen leaves in about 15 minutes. Let’s go!

I mess up by asking for tickets to Reschen rather than the Reschen Pass, where the bus also stops. Should I have fought my way through the school group and asked the driver if we can stay on for 2 more stops? The pass is closer to 5000 feet above sea level. Guess we missed more amazing descents, also on a bike path.

Bikes go on the back of the bus, a heavy lift. Definitely a job for two. And no e-bikes allowed. For that there’s a contact for a private shuttle at the train/bus station.

What did we see?

There’s more than these warnings of a 20% grade (going downhill for us, phew).

We biked along a couple of lakes.

Spotted our first e-bike charger in the wild. Free to use for bikes. Wonder what would happen if we tried to recharge phones?

Castles. Cowbells. Apple trees.

Dinner had a decidedly Austrian feel. These are Knoedel, Austria’s version of dumplings.

Now for day 2 to Bolzano.

Practical stuff

-Our bikes are red German-made Velo de Ville touring models with 30 gears, disc brakes, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires and dynamo hub lights. We paid Itinerabike in Verona 80 euros apiece (2023 price) for a five-day rental, plus 20 euros each for two large Ortlieb panniers apiece. Phone holder, helmet, repair kit all included. Plus we could leave luggage we didn’t want to haul with Itinerabike. Staff there speaks English.

Itinerabike also rents e-bikes and gravel bikes and offers all kinds of trip services for those who don’t want to DIY it.

-Train tickets from Verona to Merano on the regional trains cost 19.70 euros apiece. (Faster trains cost more.) The bike charge was 3.50 euros, and we got a nice, easy-to-use bike area. Hello, Amtrak?

The ticket machine wouldn’t sell me a ticket all the way to Mals including the bike. That’s because the region of South Tyrol does its own thing. Another 8.50 euros for the train from Merano to Mals, plus 7 euros for the bike.

And then 3 euros for the bus to Resia.

Ticket machines have an English option, and ticket staff speak English. Don’t forget to validate your paper tickets. This is from a separate train trip in Verona, but you get the idea:

We could have saved several euros if we’d bought a ticket to Trento (7.85 euros, plus 3.50 euros for the bike) and a South Tyrol one-day pass to cover the rest for 20 euros (plus a discounted 3.50 euros instead of 7 euros for the bike). We’d have had to do that online because I don’t think we could have bought it in Verona. But I didn’t figure all that out until after the fact.

-There are lots of places to stay in and around Mals for all kinds of budgets. We picked the FinKa, a former barracks turned into a hostel just a half-mile from the train station, because of all the uncertainty over what time we’d get in. It could have been almost dark! And yes hostels these days offer some private rooms.

-I’m traveling with my U.S. phone. My provider, T-Mobile, offers free data abroad (ok, a bit slow, but a trade-off I’ll take). WhatsApp is handy to have. And of course there’s WiFi every place we stayed.

-South Tyrol is predominantly German-speaking (it was part of the Austrian empire until after World War I). School is in German aside from Italian language class starting in first grade. I’m comfortable with both German and Italian. The Brit is not, and people switched to English for him.

Ready for day 2?