This is a particularly picturesque leg, with highlights including beautiful countryside, typical rolling Tuscan hills, vineyards, sunflowers, hilltop villages, cathedrals and historic buildings galore – not to mention the wonderful cities of Piacenza, Bologna, Orvieto and Rome. The first part of the trip is almost totally flat until we cross into the rolling hills of Tuscany on the morning of day 3 where we cover the two biggest climbs of the leg. From there we cycle through Umbria & Lazio into Bologna and finally pick up a cycle path that takes us almost entirely traffic-free into the centre of Rome.

There is a total of 4 1/2 days’ cycling, covering 390 miles.