From the Tuscan Hills to the Shores of the Adriatic. Experience Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany.

The Alpine East begins in the warmth of central Italy in Florence, a city of art and romance.

Florentine art isn’t limited to the Renaissance Masters. Nearby are masterpieces of engineering art. aficionados of Italian motor vehicles may recognize Raticosa, Futa, Scarperia and Mugello as names of test roads for Italy’s exotic 2 and 4 wheel creations. Art or engineering - the difficult choice of enjoying a day in the city or a wonderful ride.

Art lovers who gravitate to the city needn’t worry, as the Tuscan hills to the east are pierced by passes Consuma, Mandrioli and Viamaggio, Top-notch riding leads to Gubbio, where the Middle Ages come alive via the narrow, serpentine town streets.

For centuries the Adriatic was the main thoroughfare between Italy and the Balkans. It is ours as well. An overnight trans-Adriatic ferry crossing transports bikes and riders to Dalmatia. Riding off the ship in Split isn’t simply a trip to another country, but another time. Split, or Aspálathos, as the Greeks knew it in the 6th century BC. is a bustling port city. A free day here allows an enjoyable stroll on the promenade, a ride along the azure-blue waters of the Croatian coastline, or into the hills of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The theme of the next days is “the ‘way it was.” Villages along the route offer a glimpse of rural life largely unchanged from the pre-glasnost era. Here one finds an enthusiasm and determination which spring from ‘recent’ overwhelming changes in the political system.

Discovery of new places goes hand in hand with the crossing of historic boundaries. Slovenia is the northernmost spin-off of the former Yugoslavia, and before this was a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Departure from this tidy, appealing country is over the Julian Alps, a formidable natural border and gateway to Austria and the eastern Alps.

The former Austro-Hungarian Empire gives way to Prussia entering the Czech Republic, and the city of Prague! We can’t say it any better than William Jeffery Prowse did – “...the persons I pity who know not the City, the beautiful City of Prague.”

Time in Prague will pass all too quickly. The hops fields of eastern Bavaria frame the ride to Munich on the way to a final dinner with a group of newly made friends.

Alpine Adventure West