It’s not every day that you can claim to have cycled from Italy to Austria but really, the stunning 46km bike route from Dobbiaco/Toblach to Lienz is something any leisure cyclist can do – and have lots of fun while at it. The route is mostly paved and gently downhill with several alpine villages along the way, where you can stop for water breaks at free water fountains or refuel with some delizioso Italian pasta, pizza, gelato and beer. My family took a leisurely 7 hours for the whole trip – including countless photo and food stops – although we hardly noticed the time pass by with all the overwhelming beauty that surrounded us. Together we rode alongside picture-perfect fields dotted with grazing cows, medieval castles perched on hillsides with massive mountain peaks in the backdrop, winding through giant pine trees up close, to the sound of gushing river streams and our own gushing in awe and – if we happened to pass by one of the villages on the hour – the melodious distant chime of church bells.
We kinda stumbled onto the Dobbiaco to Lienz bike trail by chance. My mom, a bicycle enthusiast, had wanted to work out a different set of muscles after a day of intense hiking to Lago di Sorapis. After an attempted conversation in broken French with our Italian receptionist who didn’t speak English, we decided that her recommendation of the Pista Ciclabile Dobbiaco – Lienz was a brilliant one – an approximately 46km one-way ride from Dobbiaco to Lienz whereby we could then hop on a train back with our bikes. We made another clumsy call to Guide Alpine Dobbiaco and silently hoped that our request to rent 5 bikes the next day wasn’t lost in translation.
My Franglais must have worked because the shopkeeper was expecting us to collect our bikes in the morning. We paid 17 euros per person to ride a basic, gearless city bike for the whole day – and off we went! Here are some of our stops along the way:
Happy cycling! 🙂