Giro d'Italia "Experience" Week 2 Pompeii, Adriatic Coast, Lago di Garda & Livigno

We will meet you at Naples Airport and transfer you to your hotel. Our team will help you to check in and unpack your bike or set up your rental bike. After a light lunch or snack, we’ll test-ride the bikes on the winding coastal roads and return. Back at our hotel, we can adjust the bikes, and then explore the surrounding area before dinner and the tour briefing.

Flexibility is key today. A challenging ride along the coast and cross the Monti Lattari towards Pompeii to watch the Stage 10 start. If you prefer something less strenuous we have that too. Either choice, you will ride along the stunningly beautiful and glamorous Amalfi coast on roads cut into the rock and through tightly packed villages perched above the sea or lining the sandy coves and lidos. At Pompeii, you will join the thousands of passionate fans to cheer the riders as they start Stage 10. As the crowds dissipate, you will be able to visit the magnificent Pompeii UNESCO Heritage Site. After, the team will transfer you to your hotel.

Can we say, an easy day today? After breakfast a transfer to Pietracatella in the foothills on the eastern side of the Apennines. So some rolling terrain and then all downhill and then flat until you reach the Adriatic coast. For those of you who want more, the team will transfer you to San Bartolomeo in Galdo. En route we will regroup for a picnic to watch the riders arrive and race past Termoli. The team will then transfer you to your hotel on the coast.

After breakfast, the team will transfer you to the golden sands of Porto Recanati. The deadly flat portion of the route is behind you and you will ride up into the undulating terrain just inland from the coast. The team will find the best advantage point to enjoy the race atmosphere amongst the crowds and soon enough the sprinters will manically scream into Fano and the finish, with the peloton and spent domestiques following. After all that excitement, you will be transferred to your hotel in San Marino, The 5th smallest country in the world!

A Giro related diversion today. The team will take you to Cesenatico, the home town of Il Pirata, The Pirate, the great and troubled Marco Pantani. One of the world’s greatest climbers and one of the very few winners of both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same year (1998). We will visit Spazio Pantani, the Pantani memorial museum, and learn of his life, wins, passions, troubles and his generosity; before venturing out of Riccione to ride some of roads he trained on - Sogliano, Barbotto, Ciola and Pieve di Rivoschio. Our ride will finish in Forli to intercept the sprinters, breakaways and peloton as they pass through as flashes of colour. Then it is back in the van to the foothills of Lombardy, specifically your hotel on Lago di Garda.

No rest for the wicked nor the innocent. Straight after breakfast, the team will transfer you to the start of the ITT in Castiglione delle Stiviere. Make sure to have your Strava recording so you can compare your times against the pros. At the finish, you will cross the official finish, jump onto the podium for photos. Return to the hotel to change and the team will return you to the Official Giro Start zone to immerse yourself in an afternoon of Giro festive ambience - enjoy the Italian hospitality, watch your favourite riders power off from the start ramp following them on the TV screens. As the last of the fastest riders finish, the atmosphere will intensify as the crowds roar their support. After the celebrations, the team will take you back to your hotel.

Your final day of riding on the Giro route. Unlike the pros who are riding the the Tappone or the Queen Stage (5,250 m), your ride will start from Passo dell’Aprica. Almost 2,000 m and 50 km later, via Switzerland, you will reach Passo Forcola di Livigno (2,315 m). For those not feeling the enthusiasm to climb so early, you will be transferred to Poschiavo in Switzerland - still a respectable elevation gain of 1,300m. Relief and downhill to Livigno at 1,819 m. And you will cross the Giro Finish and mount the Winners’ Podium - le foto sono obbligatorie! Then enjoy the race from the VIP Finish Zone!

The team will gather you up and take you to your hotel to celebrate your week on the Giro route.

Do not book an early flight! We recommend a sleep in and a leisurely breakfast after a week of riding the Giro. There is a long transfer to the airport so we recommend an afternoon flight. The GTP team will help with checking out and transfer you to Bergamo or Milan Airport for your return home or onward journey elsewhere.

We hope that the Week 2 Experience will meet your expectations.

If you can not join us for this week, you may want to have a look at our other Giro d’Italia Experiences and Escapes, you can find them here.