Tuscany - Sacred Routes (Self-Guided MTB)

Following the Via Francigena and Eroica

The Via Francigena is the medieval pilgrimage route that once linked Canterbury to Rome, and the Eroica roads are the white gravel strade once used in the Giro d'Italia before tarmac became standard. Stitching sections of both into a self-guided mountain bike holiday is what gives this trip its name — and its character. Tuscany is better known for rolling hills and quiet tarmac, but centuries of trade and small-scale agriculture have left a dense network of forest singletrack, farm tracks and gravel lanes that you can ride for days without retracing your wheels. The riding is genuinely varied: technical climbs, fast forest descents, ridge lines with long views, and the occasional stretch of country road between hilltop villages.

From Poggibonsi to Siena

After flying into Pisa, a transfer takes you across Tuscany to your first accommodation near Poggibonsi. The first three days work southward through forested hills, vineyards, river valleys and the kind of half-abandoned farmhouses that turn up around every other corner. Routes pass under the walls of San Gimignano and Monteriggioni — the famous towers and the famously well-preserved ring of fortifications, respectively — and follow signed sections of the Francigena and the Eroica gravel. Midway you reach Buonconvento, a small walled town that makes a useful base before the second half of the trip.

The Crete Senesi and Val d'Orcia

The next three days move into the quintessential Tuscany of the postcards — and the landscape that surprises riders who only know the region from a car. The Crete Senesi are eroded clay slopes, almost lunar in places, that ride like a roller coaster of short climbs and rangy ridge descents. Val d'Orcia adds the cypress avenues and stone villages, with Pienza and San Quirico d'Orcia the obvious stops. There is a final day on the Montagnola trails, the singletrack used for a long-running Sienese MTB race, before the route drops into Siena itself. The Renaissance city is a good place to finish — proper restaurants, several decent gelaterie, and time to sit in the Campo with tired legs.

The practical side

The trip runs eight days, self-guided, with luggage transferred between hotels and route notes and GPS files provided. Saddle Skedaddle grade it 3 out of 5, which feels fair: you need reasonable mountain bike handling for the singletrack and the gravel descents, and a useful level of fitness for the climbs, but it is not a technical expedition. Bike hire is part of the booking choice — a regular mountain bike or one of their e-MTBs. Worth knowing: if a group mixes regular bikes and e-bikes, the pace is set to the regular rider, which keeps everyone together but is something for confident e-bikers to plan around. Wines from Chianti, Montepulciano and Montalcino are the obvious accompaniment in the evenings, and most riders will want a couple of them. Prices from £1,795 per person, flights extra. A guided version of the same route is also offered for those who would rather not navigate.