Cycling holiday in Italy: On the Tagliamento to the Adriatic – travel


“Wait a minute, I have to hold on to that!” Says Thierry Pascolo, and jumps off the bike. He pulls the smartphone out of the side pocket of the backpack. The motif that he photographs several times from the front and even from the back: a family, father, mother and two teenage sons, all on touring bikes that are heavily loaded with sleeping bags, sleeping mats and other camping equipment. “Long-distance cyclists are still a rare sight here. I publish the pictures on our website,” says Pascolo.

Cycling along the Tagliamento: the river has its source at the Mauria Pass in the Carnic Alps in Friuli Venezia Giulia and flows into the Adriatic Sea after about 170 kilometers between Lignano and Bibione. The start was in Villa Santina, a village surrounded by forests and meadows at the foot of Monte Santina. As far as Villa Santina the Tagliamento falls steeply downhill through gorges, now it has let off steam and meanders through a wide gravel bed, which is lined by narrow streets and a bike path.

From Villa Santina the river meanders through a wide gravel bed.

(Photo: Richard Semik / imago images)

Hardly anyone knows the cycle paths on the Tagliamento as well as Thierry Pascolo, mountain bike guide and vice-president of the Gemona section of the Italian environmental and cycling association FIAB, which is why he accompanies the tour for a part. The planned 50 kilometers to San Daniele del Friuli are no challenge for the well-trained man in his late forties. “The Tagliamento, suitable for cyclists along its entire length”: Under this motto, two years ago he organized a weekend tour along the river to the mouth of the Adriatic with some colleagues. “It’s about bringing the magnificent body of water and gentle mobility more into the public eye,” says Pascolo.

At the moment there are only sections of the Tagliamento cycle path, the rest of the route runs on side roads with little traffic. However, he is optimistic about the completion, says Pascolo. “Ten or 15 years ago I still had to ride my bike on the roof of my car to Austria, there were no cycle paths here. Today, however, tourism associations and local politicians support our goals.” The Tagliamento cycle path is a project of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. “In addition to regional funds, there are also funds from the EU Interreg Fund to promote sustainable development,” says Pascolo. So far, around 60 kilometers have been completed. The obstacles that delayed the continuation of the work were mostly bureaucracy or landowners who stood up against each other, explains Pascolo. “Negotiations with landowners often take years.”

It is a matter of establishing the bicycle here as a means of everyday transport, says the cycling activist

Under deciduous trees, past farms with fragrant haystacks in front of them, the bikes roll on mostly paved roads through Cavazzo Carnico, Vale and Pioverno, hamlets with cherry tree avenues and hardly a handful of houses. Gradually the area expands. You pass fields planted with maize, from which sprinkler systems protrude like iron bird heads. Behind embankment walls, the Tagliamento babbles emerald-colored in gullies between sand and gravel banks. From a distance it looks like a network of veins that shimmers through cracked skin. Residents of the surrounding villages who do a training lap after work seem to prefer the street parallel to the bike path. “That is stupid and dangerous!” Comments Thierry Pascolo with a sidelong glance.

In order to get the youngsters excited about cycling, he offers courses for school classes. “It’s about establishing the bicycle as an everyday means of transport. The persuasion has to start with the young,” says Pascolo. He is annoyed by planning technicians who always come by car to the on-site inspection on the bike path. “Some have little idea. It is absurd that the gravel for the road surface is not taken from the Tagliamento, where it is found in large quantities, but is carted by trucks from far away!” Such examples showed that the Tagliamento had disappeared from the consciousness of the residents. “The river could serve as a source of identity for the entire region,” says Pascolo. With its islands, gravel banks and floodplains, the Tagliamento forms a model ecosystem where the kingfisher breed, the gray egret, the great egret and around 50 species of butterflies find their habitat.

The climb to San Daniele is worth it. Because of the medieval town center. And because of the ham.

(Photo: Lorenzo Pegoraro / mauritius images / Alamy)

In the afternoon we reach San Daniele. The sweaty ascent to the pretty hilltop town with medieval walls is well worth it. San Daniele is famous for its raw ham of the same name, a picnic, back down by the river, should lead to the cozy part of the day. Towels are spread out on the sand under white poplars, the leaves of which shimmer brightly in the wind. The ham melts in your mouth, with olives, tomatoes in oil, bread and cheese. Then you balance barefoot over round stones to the Tagliamento splashing past. The water is crystal clear and ice cold. However, the sand, fine as flour, radiates the stored heat of the day even after sunset, so that you quickly get warm again. Further downstream, driftwood campfires burn.

The mosaic master from Codroipo is looking for his stones directly on the river

The next day we pass villages and fields behind San Daniele, sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left bank of the river. At Codroipo a footpath leads through jungle-like green back down to the Tagliamento. His bed, about a kilometer wide here and littered with white stones that only appear the same at first glance, is a place of meditative calm. Here Luciano Petris collects round stones in plastic boxes. Over time, you get an eye for those you might need, explains the seventy-year-old. “Those with veins running through them on the inside, they can be split like wood without splintering”.

Petris is a mosaic master. His works can be seen in many cities, such as his 210 square meter glass mosaic on a department store facade in Vienna’s Mariahilferstrasse. Later, in his workshop, the artist cut the stones he picked up into two-finger-thick slices with a hammer on an iron wedge. Put together, the Tagliamento stones will adorn the wall of a villa. He is fascinated by working with natural materials that he can find on his doorstep, says Petris. “That’s how it was done here for centuries. The houses in the villages on the Tagliamento were all built with round river stones in the past.”

At San Michele, the Tagliamento has long been wedged between high walls. The wheels now roll in wide loops on the grassy crest of the dam on the right, Venetian river side towards the sea. There is a smell of salt in the air. You could also cycle on the asphalt road at the foot of the dam, there are hardly any cars on the way, it would be faster. But then you would not have the river in view, only houses, fields and pine avenues that do not let any rays of sun through. That wouldn’t be bad at the moment, because it’s hot in the oven again – everything is steaming, the grass floor, the trees, the cyclists. It shakes you up on the bumpy slope. Instinctively you keep to the left where the trees provide some shade. Anglers cast their rods under tarpaulins. Motorboats chug past. A dredger removes sand and gravel from the river floor. Suddenly the waves splash, between wedged stone blocks the floods of the Tagliamento mix with the dark blue sea. On the natural beach full of dead wood, bathers have erected awnings out of branches and towels.

Now let’s get off the saddle. Quickly put on your swimming trunks and dive into the Adriatic, which is just the right temperature to cool off.

Travel information

Getting there: via Lienz in East Tyrol the Plöckenpass to Villa Santina

Accommodation: San Daniele: Relais Picaron, relaispicaron.it; Lignano: Hotel Astoria, HB between 80 – 105 euros in a double room, hgphotels.it/hotel-astoria

Bike path on the Tagliamento: fiab-gemona.it

information and guided bike tours by Thierry Pascolo, Tel .: 0039/348 7281 874

.



Source link