We would like to bike in Tuscany on a Sunday. Again, I'm finding full-blown biking tours, but all I want is the name of a place to rent bikes and a map of suggested routes listing their difficulty levels. I've read, I think on this list, where you can pick up such a map once in Tuscany, but I hate to wait until we get there to plan this bike ride.

Any suggestions?

Hi I would wait and rent a bike in an area around where your staying. I was surprised at how hilly narrow and winding many of the roads were. Also in Tuscany you have many tourists driving these roads as well, and I can tell you they don't always stay on their side of the road, especially around the corners. Personally I was wondering how many cyclist are hit by cars in Tuscany? There were some areas were the roads are better than others and if you wait you can choose these areas to cycle

And start early in the day before the scorching mid afternoon sun turns the prettiest of sceneries sour. Average hi in Florence in July and Aug over 90 degrees i believe.

I second weasel's comments - there are many roads in Tuscany that I would be extremely nervous biking on, especially those that run in/out of the hilltowns, due to hills and increased traffic on the narrow roads. Where in Tuscany are you thinking of biking? Fodorites may be able to recommend some routes. For example, we're staying in San Gimignano (again) this fall, and I remember (correctly, I hope) that the road that leads from the north side of San G., eventually arriving in Certaldo, is relatively flat and straight, and has less traffic that the road that approaches San G. from the south.

Also, you can get some ideas (though not really of the elevations) by getting the largest-scale map you can. The smallest roads listed on most maps tend to be less-travelled but well-maintained. I love driving on those kinds of roads, and have also used those maps to plot out running routes for myself.

I think I had it in my mind that there were biking and/or walking paths somewhere. Maybe I was making it up. We are staying outside Pienza. It's not the end of the world if we don't get to bike. I'm not a biker anyway, just wanted to do something different while in Tuscany.

You might try contacting this company to see if you could do a one day self guided--they are located in Pienza.

http://www.cicloposse.com/selfguided5.php

There are some great bicycling books listed on the following web page - they have maps and greater or lesser detail on the difficulty of the rides: http://www.greve-in-chianti.com/bicy...ycling-eng.htm