Why this one exists
It is the holiday we have run more than any other, and the reason is simple. Everything is within an hour of the front door, so the week can change shape on the morning if the weather or the legs say so.
One day you climb a mountain with ten roads to the top. The next you are on a plateau that smells of pine and feels like the Dolomites. The day after that you are rolling through olive groves to Asolo for a lunch that takes longer than it should.
It suits riders who want the famous climbs on the list and do not want to pack a bag in the middle of the week.
What only we can say
Susi was born here. Ben came for a season and bought a house. Between us we have seen a fair bit of the world and there is nowhere we would rather live, which is the whole reason this holiday exists.
That also means years of relationships rather than suppliers. A friend with a studio in a villa garden who will host a cooking class with a private chef, taking an evening away from his own restaurant to cook for you. A villa's vegetable garden we are allowed to pick from for the focaccia workshop. And Ben spent two years helping build the Bassano Club House (BCH), which is why you get first pick of the bikes.
Shape of the week
This is the rhythm, not a timetable. You pick the riding days from the menu below, and we build the week around which ones you want and what the weather is doing.
The riding days
We publish the days rather than a fixed itinerary, because that is how the trip actually works. Distances are what we ride, not a brochure total. Every week has one easy day in it on purpose.
East out of Bassano on quiet country roads into the wine hills of Monfumo and Castelcucco. You pass close to the plaster cast museum, which holds the original models for Canova's sculptures and is worth the detour if you have the legs. Then up into Asolo itself, a walled hilltop town, for lunch in the centre before the ride home. Road.
West instead, through the vineyards and olive groves on the gravel tracks north of town, then into Marostica, where the castle walls still run up the hillside and the main square is a giant chessboard. On from there into the hills above Breganze, which is bold red wine on volcanic soil, and back to Bassano over the La Rosina climb. Works on gravel or road.
South out of Bassano and almost entirely off the road: gravel tracks, cycle paths and the lanes that follow the waterways down to Cittadella. The town is a perfect circle inside its medieval walls and you ride the last stretch with them in front of you. Flat, three hundred metres of climbing in seventy two kilometres, so it is the easy day on any week you put it in.
North along the cycle path through the Valbrenta, then the Foza climb, which featured in the 2017 Giro. Pine forests and alpine meadows at the top, then more than twenty kilometres of descent back down.
26.6 kilometres and 1,567 metres from Bassano, on the road Pogacar raced up in the 2024 Giro. The ecosystem changes three times on the way. There is a war memorial at the summit worth the time it takes to walk round, and a restaurant at 1,775 metres.
The longest day and the flattest. East over the river, through farmland and small towns almost nobody stops in, with a long lunch in the middle and a tailwind home if we have timed it right.
Bassano on foot. The Nardini distillery, which is the oldest in Italy. The ceramics museum. Lunch on the bridge. Several guests tell us afterwards this was the day they remember.
What is included
Guided and self-guided run on the same groundwork. The difference is whether there is a guide on the road with you, and a vehicle behind.
Price
That is the self-guided rate, for two people sharing, with everything above included.
Guided starts at €450 per person per day. It usually runs for a group of six to twelve, which is how the economics work best, and above eight we bring a second guide. Two people can travel guided if that is what you want. The price is simply different, and we will tell you what it is on the call.
We are not a booking engine and we never will be. Every trip is shaped on a conversation first, then priced. A 30 per cent deposit holds your dates and the balance is due 90 days before you arrive.
Peak dates are quoted on enquiry. All prices in euro.
“One of the best cycling experiences I have ever had, from the amazing food and wine, to watching the pros in the Giro race over Monte Grappa.”William Allen · Guided, Bassano del Grappa
Questions
From Bassano it is 26.6 kilometres and 1,567 metres, at an average of about six per cent. It is long rather than steep, and there is a restaurant at the top. Plenty of our guests ride it on an e bike and arrive at the summit with everyone else, which is the point.
Yes. Pick the Piave day and the Cittadella gravel day and you have a week with one big climb in it rather than four. We build the week from the menu, so the shape is yours.
Venice Marco Polo, Treviso or Verona. All three are about an hour from Bassano, and transfers are included in the price.
Fifteen minutes with Susi and Benji. We will ask how you ride, how you like to travel, and when you can get here. No pitch.
Book a call Or message us on WhatsApp, or email info@epicitaly.cc