A cycling holiday in northern Italy

More information needed about lake trip in Mantova. A good 10 Km cycle from the hotel so we just missed morning trip and information about pm trips there was inaccurate (on the ferry company website).

Sigurta gardens lovely and the restaurant Locanda Vecchia Custoza a real treat, for food, wine and the view.

Excellent holiday, well planned and routes were straightforward to follow and varied in scenery.

A good mix of places and hotels to stay.

Good quality bikes, with comfortable seats!

We really enjoyed our trip, the variety of scenery was amazing. However it was dampened by the weather.

This holiday exceeded our expectations in terms of its diversity,character, cycling experience and helpfulness of all involved including the Inntravel staff!

We do think however that FOGG insurance were very poor/unresponsive. They were unobtainable and never rang back when  messages were left. It does Inntravel no favours to be associated with them.

this was an excellent holiday. We stayed an extra night in Verona at the Relais le Torre apartment before the Inntravel itinerary which was excellent, well located and highly recommended. The cycling holiday was up there as one of the best we’ve done. The cycling was on good tracks and the quality of bikes was excellent. One of our group hired an electric bike which transformed her enjoyment of the holiday and will be a must do from now on. Specific recommendations for meals would be lunch at Trattoria Ai Colli Storici on day 3 in Custoza- our favourite lunch of the whole trip. Pizzeria Jonathan in Sal Vito al Mantico was great value and the best opportunity for pizza during the week. During our stay in Borghetto we walked into Valeggio Sul Mincio and had a lovely meal at Bue D’Oro.

One of the most memorable things for us was a boat ride with nuns! We had cycled to Grazie and we assume because of the party of nuns going out onto the lake that there were tours (as main season had finished) and we were able to get spaces on one of the boats and learn and see what happens when a plant starts to take over. The lotus flower plant is smothering large parts of the lakes but it is an amazing specimen and we did see one flower (late in the season to find them). The boats ran into some of the plants and the nuns grabbing leaves to make cloaks and hats was fun and their banter with one another made a delightfully happy start to our visit to the area.

Eating in Mantova (definitely a town to go back to).  Book supper at any time of the year.  We were there in mid/late September and the Osteria on the same road as the Casa Poli were very busy or not able to just walk into and get a table. We had lunch on day of arrival at Retro Bottega on via Giovanni Battista Spagnoli which first introduced us to the local moustarde with the fruits to accompany the dried meats and cheeses. We also used for evening meals the Antica Osteria al Ranari which is a wonderful local slow movement Osteria and on two occasions we ate at Lo Scalco Grasso which was superb and introduced us to excellent local wines and their own Limencello. The latter two eateries were an easy walk from the Casa Poli. We used the restaurant at the Albero each evening in Borghetto and the food was excellent (Sylvia’s pasta particularly). Good service and again, good use of local traditional dishes. We bought panini in Peschiera del Garda and had a great picnic sitting quietly on the lakeside rather than the zoo of a town which was swarming with other visitors. Pizzeria Jonathan was a real winner in San Vito.  

We all thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the holiday, helped by perfect weather. Well done Inntravel.

Our personal highlight was arriving at Sagramoso after a full day's cycling and being personally welcomed to the magnificent villa, followed by a refreshing swim in their beautiful pool.

We loved cycling along the River Mincio. We had a delightful lunch at the Trattoria Colli Ai Storici in Custoza. And we loved spending a day by the pool at Villa Sagramoso Sacchetti.

What a difference the electric bikes made, no concerns about the distance we would cover or the steepness of any hills. It was particularly good not to arrive at the next hotel looking red faced and exhausted!

Cycling alonside the River Mincio and the various canals was a delight. 

This was our first Inntravel experience and we will book again. The route was lovely in the main but in some areas involved the use of the PC along busy roads which we will try to avoid next time. We would recommend planning this holiday to avoid hitting Verona during the weekend as it was so crowded and this obviously contributed to the volume of traffic. Finally, we booked an extra night at the end of the trip which we would also recommend but missed having the bikes so suggest booking these for an extra day to in order to get around. 

There were no taxis at the station in Mantova and the number to call for a taxi on the taxi rank was just a recorded message. It was a fair walk to the hotel.  However, the cycling from Borghetto to Lake Garda and along the shoreline was a delight.

Personal highlight was the route from Mantova to Borghetto and from Borghetto to Peschiera. Villa Sagramoso Sachetti was excellent and breakfast there was exceptional. Borghetto is beautiful and the food everywhere was excellent but especially at the Botega Restaurant very close to our first hotel.

A very enjoyable holiday with easy cycling mainly on dedicated tracks or quiet country roads. Apart from one or two very short climbs made a tad more challenging by a loose surface, much of the cycling is essentially flat. The exception is the optional excursion to Custoza which features a fairly long and moderately steep ascent, albeit on a good tarmac road. It's worth making the effort for the views.

Two pieces of advice: bring a cycling tool (with allen keys) to tighten any bolts that work loose en route; avoid the café in the otherwise excellent Sigurta Park. The latter provided us with pizza slices that were an insult to Italian cooking!

One of the best cycling holidays we have been on and this is our third with Inntravel. We particularly liked the fact that we stayed 2 nights in each hotel rather than having to move on each day. We cycled each day but under no pressure of time. The choice of places and hotels was brilliant; lots to see, lovely places to eat, particularly in Borghetto, Osteria il Borgo. Dinner in an enclosed garden away from the crowds across the river was magical. My first time on an electric bike, which made the holiday even better, was a revelation. Will certainly book one next time. Made easy work of some steep inclines.

A very good new holiday our 11th with inntravel.

The suggested restaurants were all good.

In Borghetto we had a fabulous meal at Lo Stoppo, possibly the best meal of all our Inntravel holidays, and suggest you book the day before to get a good table.

The restaurants - mixing simple pizza restaurants and more refined dining works well. 

Villa Sagramoso is delightful and Pizzeria Johnathan a gentle stroll away serves good cheap wine and excellent pizzas, suggest you take a torch for the walk back.

Look up the free walking tour in Verona - three hours with a delightful enthusiastic guide who you tip at the end. Cycling there and back we suggest return on the same route - the notes make a lot of note reading for little gain.

Hotel Casa Poli put on a good breakfast and is well located with well sound proofed rooms, no road noise at all. They also suggest local restaurants.

Day 2 - the kiosk at the old mills of Mulini di Volta was doing a roaring trade and the food looks good.

Day 3 - lunch at Locanda Vecchia Custoza sitting on the terrace overlooking the gardens with vines beyond sums up the Inntravel experience. A lovely rest and great food.

Wonderful cycle route along cycle paths and quiet roads filled with friendly cyclists mostly dressed in normal clothes going at a normal speeds! Villa Sagromoso Sacchetti was amazing but stick to the recommended restaurants that you can get to on the cycle paths. Our hostess there was superb and phoned to make reservations. Do not go to the one on the other side of the river unless you are very confident in traffic and on narrow busy bridges! A real holiday of contrasts with great cycling on excellent bikes ending in a beautiful location outside a beautiful city!

Book online to see the Mantegna's in the Palazzo Ducale for 10.00 am on the morning after you arrive.....and then go on the first bike ride. There's a very nice small restaurant in Grazie at the other end of the square to the Sanctuary, which you will get to for a late lunch.

If the Trattoria Pansa in Cola is full, as it was when we got there, there is everything you need for a picnic in the mini market.

Be sure to bike to a restaurant rather than walk from Villa Sagramosa. We had a very good meal at Antica Locanda al Porto in San Vito.

Personal highlights for us were cycling through Sigurta Gardens, with its spectacular views over the countryside and its amazing variety of plants. We also loved the wildlife we spotted along the route, and really enjoyed the local food and wine, something that the restaurant owners are justifiably proud of. It felt a real achievemment with our 10 year old to complete the route each day, especially as the local Italian cyclists were all very encouraging and waved to him as they passed. Arriving in Verona by bike was very exciting, and we loved the splendour and history of the city.