Ruralmente
Join us to ride through the region that’s one of Italy’s best-kept secrets!
Italy is one of my favorite countries in the world, and definitely the one where I’ve spent the most time abroad. (Three years!)
“Ruralmente” means “rurally” in Italian.
That’s what we named this trip, because it refers to a way to see Italy that few travelers ever experience.
Scroll down for more!
When?
September 15 – 21, 2024
How much?
$3,800 USD (minus Tilted Map discount – see below!)
On What?
Top-of-the-line E-bikes OR gravel bikes
Behind the Scenes:
Here’s the video of last year’s trip! Grab a beverage, kick back, and see yourself on the trail… Or at the dinner table, sipping local wine at the end of the day.
You’re invited!
Get Ready For A Unique Experience…
What’s Included:
What’s NOT Included:
Just for you
Discount:
- Save $500 on this trip (Sept. 15 – 21, 2024) just for being a Tilted Map reader! Use the code MAP10RURAL , or just write that Ketti sent you when you make your booking with Marco, our guide.
- Can’t come this time? For other dates and trips with Basecamp523, you’ll save 10% with that code!
This trip is designed with sustainability in mind in so many ways.
The opposite of over-tourism
We’re visiting rural areas that receive very few tourists – and would actually love to take some away from their over-touristed neighbors like Venice, Florence and Rome.
100% Local
Every single hotel we stay at, every restaurant we eat in, every farm we visit is 100% locally owned. Most are entirely organic, as well. These people live here, they know the land intimately, and they care about protecting it.
As I talked about a bit in our video (around the 1:35 minute mark), these are the businesses that let people in these rural areas thrive and keep their unique cultural traditions alive.
Our guide, Marco, and his wife, Silvia, who does lots of behind-the-scenes work, are both from the region. Their small business is 100% local.
Fewer Cars on the Road
While we will have a support vehicle moving our luggage from one hotel to the next, while we bike every day, that’ll be just one vehicle. And it’s not driving through the ancient villages we’ll visit, or up to the magnificent view points we’ll ride to. The way I see it, this trip is an alternative to each of us likely renting a car to see these sites as a road trip, as most people would.
And hey, if spending a few days on a mountain bike or e-bike on this trip makes you realize you’d like to do that even a tiny bit more at home too, and you could even start replacing some car trips with bike rides, well then that’ll be a lovely side effect. 🙂 (That’s pretty much what happened to me after last year.)
The “Last Mile” by Train
If you don’t live in Europe you’ll probably have to fly to get to Italy. I know, that’s just the way it is. While you could look for flights into the airports of Perugia or Ancona, that’s almost guaranteed to add an extra flight to your route.
Instead, we recommend booking your flight into and out of either Milan (MXP or LIN) or Rome (FCO). Those are the two biggest hubs in Italy, so it’s most likely you’ll be able cut out a layover by flying there and continuing by train.
(Both Milan and Rome are just a 2 to 4 hour train ride from Fabriano, where we’ll start the trip. (And will give you some lovely views from the train! If possible, I’d recommend booking a flight that arrives the night before our first day, staying in a hotel in Milan or Rome for one night, and taking the train the next day.)
Funding Carbon Removal & SAF
Marco and I are also donating $30 of every trip registration to Tomorrow’s Air, to fund carbon removal projects and SAF (sustainable aviation fuel).
I definitely don’t consider this a carbon offset. It’s not meant to counteract, or offset, the exact amount of emissions from this trip, or from the flight to get there. (There are lot of challenges with thinking we can do that precisely – from how exactly we calculate the emissions, to what price we put on them, to what happens with the money.)
Instead, this donation is about making sure some money goes to the projects that really need to be funded in order to reverse climate change, and to make net-zero aviation a reality.
Yes, we have a lot of work to do to make either of those happen. But as an aeronautical engineer recently told me on the topic: “If you went to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and looked at where we’re at now, everyone would have said it was impossible. It’s not impossible.”
Itinerary & Details
Read my blog post about the trip last year for a day-by-day itinerary and what to expect.
