It\u2019s a hot Italian summer\u2019s day, and I\u2019m cycling 100km through the\u00a0Dolomites\u00a0of South\u00a0Tyrol. Roads go either up or down here. They\u2019re never flat. So the route includes 2,900m of ascending some of the sharpest climbs in European cycling, like the famous\u00a0Passo\u00a0delle\u00a0Erbe\u00a0and\u00a0Passo\u00a0Falzarego. It\u2019s probably the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done in my life, and I\u2019ve tried to return a rental vehicle to the car hire terminal at Naples Airport. The scenery, when I have the energy to look up now and again, is as breathtaking as the effort. The\u00a0Dolomites\u00a0are nature showing off: meadows of colourful wildflowers, forest-clad hills, snow in the winter and sun in the summer, and rising above it all, those massive craggy peaks, awesome in their bulk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IN THE NORTH OF ITALY, AN E-BIKE SHARING SCHEME PUTS THE SKY-HIGH PEAKS OF THE DOLOMITES IN REACH OF THE EVERYDAY PEDALLER. WE PLUG IN AND RIDE OUT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","destinations-italy","subcategories-adventure-sports","subcategories-cycling","subcategories-fitness","subcategories-green-space","inspirations-adventure"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n