Decently maintained bike paths alternate far too often with damaged roads, potholes (sometimes craters), and roads without bike paths or paths connected by zig-zag routes along streets where cars drive between 70 and 100 km/h. Unfortunately, this describes much of the route we followed until Bologna, where things gradually improved as we entered Trentino—a paradise that felt like it wasn’t even part of our beloved Italy.

Everyone knows Italy is stunning, and there’s no doubt about that. However, we found a place in Italy that, unless you’re into churches and monuments (we’re not), has little to offer: the Po Valley. If you love scorching heat, a lack of trees and shade, and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, it’s the perfect place. Luckily, we moved on to Trentino, which reminded us why Italy is so beloved worldwide. Had we avoided the Po Valley, we’d probably give it a solid 9/10, but sadly, that wasn’t the case.

So far, Italy it’s the only country where we never ran out of water as you’ll find a water fountain every few kilometers, especially on bike paths. Whenever you pass through villages, it’s almost guaranteed there will be at least one potable water fountain or some people around to whom you can ask for water. Very appreciated when you have already a lot of weight in your luggages!

Well, what can we say? We might be biased, but it’s really hard to eat poorly in Italy. If you want bad food, you’ll have to try hard to find it. I’ve spoken to foreigners disappointed by Italian food, but when I asked where they ate, they often mentioned super touristy places—so they brought it upon themselves! In summary, excellent food everywhere, and if you cook for yourself, local ingredients are usually of outstanding quality (as long as you choose local, km-0 products).

Prices aren’t outrageous but not particularly cheap either. Being a touristy country, prices are what they are, especially in summer. What astonishes me are pizza prices, which never drop below €10 for a basic pizza or €7-8 for a ham and cheese sandwich.

Well, what can I say…we speak Italian! Although, in Trentino, we did encounter some difficulties, which we’ll share in this amusing anecdote.

One word comes to mind: breathtaking. This applies both literally, because of the uphill climbs that leave you gasping for air, and figuratively, because the landscapes are enchanting. The roads are flawless, and even unpaved ones are well-maintained with no potholes or damage. If bike paths are flooded by rivers, they are usually well-marked, and alternative routes are easy to find thanks to signage at the blockages.

You often find yourself on bike paths running along rivers overshadowed by tall, lush green mountains. Flowers line the route, and you feel incredibly safe as the bike paths are either far from or well-protected from car traffic. The landscapes are enchanting, but unfortunately, when we visited, all the rivers were brown due to heavy rains, which thankfully occurred mostly at night. We hope to return soon to change this 9 into a 10!

Fountains are less frequent than in Italy but still fairly common, so you don’t have to carry excessive water (and extra weight). At worst, you can stop at one of the many bars along the way and fill your bottles there (after at least ordering a coffee, of course!).

Transitioning from Italy to another country is usually quite shocking, and the further north you go, the truer this is. This doesn’t mean there aren’t dishes with good flavor—Schnitzel and fries are tasty…the first ten times. Then you move on to sausages…which are good the first three times. In short, food isn’t their strong suit. However, their cakes are excellent, and it’s for this reason that food scores nearly a passing grade.

Prices are slightly higher than in Italy (likely because incomes are higher in Austria, and prices follow suit). Campsites were in line with prices in Trentino.

If you don’t speak German, most people know a bit of English, and some even speak Italian. It’s rare to encounter campsites where only German is spoken. Communication wasn’t particularly challenging for us.

Germany also has numerous and impeccable bike infrastructures. Even in small towns, there are bike paths, and when there aren’t, it’s because they’re unnecessary: you generally feel safe. When there are large rivers, the bike paths are usually placed on the riverbanks, and since they’ve engineered the riverbeds to be almost always straight for easier navigation, the paths can feel monotonous. Recently, they’ve faced headaches with increasingly intense rains causing annual river overflows, making bike paths unusable. Several times, we found ourselves without a path and no directions on how to proceed...and that lack of organization did not feel very German!

Germany is enormous, and we only covered a relatively small part. When there are mountains, the landscapes are beautiful, especially in the south near the Alps. However, most of the territory is monotonous, and repetitive. As mentioned, in the presence of large rivers like the Danube, the bike paths are straight and seemingly endless (and very boring).

This was unexpected: Bavaria is the place where we struggled the most to find water. Fountains were rare; only larger towns had them, and small villages often didn’t even have supermarkets. Of course, you can always ask people for help...if you can find them, as most stay indoors, leaving you to ring doorbells.

Like Austria, if you love Schnitzel and sausages of all kinds, you’ll be fine. They have a great variety of bread that looks fresh but is mostly industrial. Ingredients usually lack flavor, like eating solid air. The desserts are very good, provided you’re a fan of sweets. The presence of immigrants, especially from Turkey, saves German food: kebab is considered German and is usually very good. 

Similar to Italy: neither cheap nor expensive. Avoid coffee, and don’t even think about ordering a cappuccino unless you enjoy being disappointed and suffering.

While it’s true that in big cities like Berlin, most people speak English, this is absolutely false in smaller cities and villages, where even speaking German can be challenging as they only speak dialects other Germans struggle to understand. Fortunately, as a good Italian, I’m very good at making myself understood with gestures.

We didn’t spend much time in Hungary, but from what we saw, the roads were well-maintained and in good condition.

Mostly flat with a few hills here and there: for the most part, it’s all cultivated fields, with little forested area left, making the landscape even more monotonous and uninteresting. We noticed Lake Balaton required a small detour to reach Croatia; we’d read it was a popular spot for Hungarian domestic tourism, so we wanted to see it. It was honestly quite disappointing: despite being the largest lake in Europe, the landscape is flat, and most beaches are privatized.

You’ll find a fountain here and there, but sometimes you can go 20 km without seeing one. However, every village, no matter how small, had a small grocery store or supermarket, so water can be purchased at reasonable prices.

We learned to enjoy grilled dishes with raw onions and peppers. The goulash and grilled dishes we tried were very good, and they have a nice variety of local vegetables. We liked it, but we wouldn’t have minded some vegetarian dishes or salads!

Of the countries we visited, Hungary was undoubtedly the cheapest. You need to exchange money or have a card like WISE that supports multiple currencies. They didn’t mind letting you pay by card, even for very small amounts.

Not everyone speaks English; they understand a few key words, but it’s more common for them to speak German as many work or have worked in Germany: if you don’t speak a bit of German (even just keywords), it could be challenging.

Bike paths are often missing, but the roads are usually wide or not very busy… until you reach the coast, where things get a bit risky. The roads are fairly narrow but, thankfully, not full of potholes. We avoided the coast to find less busy roads, and it worked well… although we were scared of encountering bears, especially near Slovenia!

Croatia is crossed by the Dinaric Alps and is mostly mountainous. The landscapes are paradisiacal, and their rivers are clean and swimmable. The nature is lush and often seems untouched.

Like Hungary, fountains were scarce, but small shops weren’t lacking in the villages. Be cautious when crossing the mountains because sometimes there’s a 50 km stretch between villages, and in summer, with uphill climbs, it’s wise to carry plenty of water.

The food is good, with lots of meat, but vegetarians can usually opt for delicious lepinja with grilled vegetables, the amazing bureks that are part of their typical breakfast, and the fish is excellent, as in the whole Mediterranean countries, but prices aren’t low, so we avoided it.

Since January 1, 2023, Croatia adopted the euro, and if prices were already rising before, they’re now becoming somewhat inaccessible. During peak season, for a small tent, two people, and two bikes along the coast, it’s hard to pay less than €50. Some even quoted us €70 per night. That’s why we stayed inland and waited until mid-September for the peak season to end and prices to become reasonable again (about half).

Most of the Croatians we met spoke some English, and in Dalmatia, a vast part also Italian. Communication was never an issue for us.