Last October, I spent a week cycling through Piedmont with a group of family and friends, and it quickly became one of the most memorable travel experiences I've had in Italy.

That's a meaningful statement for someone who has made nearly twenty trips there. But Piedmont earns it.

The Setting: The Langhe by Bike

Piedmont sits in Italy's northwest, bordered by the Alps to the north and west, and the Apennines to the south. The Langhe — the rolling hill country south of Alba — is its heart: a landscape of vineyards, hilltop villages, forests of white truffle oak, and narrow roads that seem designed specifically for cycling. Which, in a sense, they were. The region has been farmed and traveled by foot and wheel for centuries, and the roads reflect that — winding, human-scaled, logical.

What stood out most about cycling here was the rhythm of it. Long, winding climbs and descents with modest grades and perfect pavement. Almost no traffic — except for the occasional wild boar crossing, which keeps you attentive. Small villages and castles appearing around each turn, as if someone placed them there for effect. Espresso stops in quiet piazzas where the barista knows every person who walks through the door. Views stretching across Barolo and Barbaresco wine country that make you stop pedaling, just to look.

This is not aggressive cycling terrain. It's contemplative cycling terrain — the kind that gives you time to think and something worth thinking about.

The Base: Relais San Maurizio

We based our stay at Relais San Maurizio, a former Augustinian monastery perched above the village of Santo Stefano Belbo in the Moscato wine hills. The conversion from monastery to luxury hotel is one of those projects that seems obvious in retrospect — the architecture, the cloister, the silence, the views — and yet takes a particular vision to execute well. Relais San Maurizio has a Michelin-starred restaurant, a spa carved into the hillside, and the particular atmosphere of a place that has been used for contemplation for several centuries. It holds on to that quality.

This kind of accommodation does something important for an active trip: it makes the recovery part of the experience. After a long day in the saddle, arriving at a place that asks nothing of you except to sit down and eat well is its own kind of reward. That's L'Equilibrio — the balance — in practice.

The Wine: Barolo, Barbaresco, and Beyond

Piedmont is Italy's most serious wine region. It produces Barolo and Barbaresco — both made from the Nebbiolo grape, both among the most age-worthy and complex wines in the world — along with Barbera d'Asti, Dolcetto, Moscato d'Asti, and a dozen other varieties that rarely leave the region in quantity. Cycling through these hills and then drinking the wines made from the vines you just rode through is a particular kind of pleasure.

One highlight of the trip was visiting Agricola Marrone, a family-run winery in La Morra in the heart of the Barolo zone. We toured the cantina, tasted through several vintages, and then had lunch on their rooftop terrace overlooking the vineyards — a meal that lasted the better part of the afternoon, which is exactly the right amount of time. The wine was serious. The food was regional. The view was the Langhe in October, which is to say it was remarkable.

Barolo is commonly called "the king of wines" — which sounds like marketing until you taste a well-aged bottle and understand why someone said it.

Why Piedmont Over Tuscany?

Piedmont may not receive the same international attention as Tuscany — and that is, at the moment, its advantage. The roads are quieter. The towns are less oriented toward tourism. The prices are more reasonable. The wine is just as extraordinary, possibly more so.

For a traveler interested in cycling, wine, cuisine, and a slower pace, I think Piedmont is one of the most compelling regions in Italy — and consistently undervalued precisely because it doesn't work as hard to be discovered.

October is, in my view, the ideal time to visit. The harvest is underway in the vineyards, the truffle season is beginning, the summer crowds are gone, and the light on the hills in the afternoon is the kind of light that makes you want to stay.

What a Trip Here Looks Like

A well-structured Piedmont cycling trip typically centers on the Langhe — the area between Alba, Barolo, Barbaresco, and Asti — with routes calibrated to the group's fitness and ambition. The terrain is genuinely varied: you can design a trip around easy valley riding, moderate hill climbs, or proper multi-hour efforts depending on who's in the group.

The non-cycling days matter just as much. A truffle hunt in the hills around Alba. A cooking class focused on tajarin and agnolotti. A tasting at one of the region's great producers. Evenings at the kind of restaurant that doesn't need a famous name because the locals already know where it is.

Relais San Maurizio is one natural base. There are others — smaller, simpler, equally rooted in the landscape — depending on what the group is looking for.

If Piedmont is on your radar, it should move up the list. I'd love to help plan it.

Reach out through the contact page — October fills quickly, and this is the kind of trip worth building carefully.

Roads Less Traveled | Cycling Through Le Marche, Italy

Some destinations are personal.

Le Marche is that place for me. My family roots trace back to this region — my grandparents, who spoke mostly Italian to each other, peppered our home with the word "Marchigian." On the table were dishes I knew by their dialect names before I ever knew their Italian ones. That was my first introduction to Le Marche, long before I ever set foot there.

I've now been back twice. This August, I'm going for the third time — exploring new territory in the south, on a five-day cycling loop through some of the region's most beautiful and least-traveled corners. And I keep asking myself why more travelers haven't discovered this place.

What Le Marche Is — and Why It Matters

Le Marche occupies the central Adriatic coast of Italy, sandwiched between Emilia-Romagna to the north and Abruzzo to the south, with the Apennine Mountains rising to the west and the Adriatic Sea to the east. It is, geographically, one of the most varied regions in Italy — beaches, rolling hills, medieval hilltop towns, and mountain terrain that feels like another world entirely, sometimes all within the same day's ride.

What it is not: crowded. While summer tourists fill Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast, and the Cinque Terre, Le Marche moves at its own pace. It always has. The roads are quieter. The towns are less aware of being picturesque. The restaurants are cooking for locals first. That's what makes it feel like the real Italy — the one that existed before the guidebooks arrived.

The Route: Five Days Through the South

This August's loop takes in a stretch of the region I haven't fully explored: south from Fermo along the Adriatic, then inland through the hills, up toward the mountains, and back again.

Fermo and Torre di Palme — Fermo is a hilltop city with a remarkable Roman cistern beneath it, a cathedral, and the kind of main square where nothing seems urgent. Torre di Palme, a few kilometers toward the sea, is one of the smallest and most beautiful villages in Italy — a cluster of stone buildings on a promontory above the Adriatic, with views that stop you mid-pedal.

Campofilone — A name known to pasta obsessives. Maccheroncini di Campofilone — egg pasta cut so thin it almost dissolves in the sauce — has been made here for centuries. We'll make it. There's no other way to understand it properly.

Grottamare and the Adriatic coast — A quieter version of the Italian beach experience. Elegant, unpretentious, entirely local in character.

Ascoli Piceno — The architectural jewel of Le Marche. The Piazza del Popolo — built in travertine marble, lined with Gothic and Renaissance arcades — is among the most beautiful town squares in Italy. Ascoli is also the home of olive ascolane: giant green olives stuffed with spiced meat, breaded, and fried. They are, without qualification, one of the great things to eat in Italy. We'll be staying at Palazzo dei Mercanti, a converted medieval convent in the historic center — the kind of property that makes you want to stay an extra day.

Offida — A small hilltop town known for its lacemaking, its carnival, and its wine. The Rosso Piceno produced in this zone — a blend of Montepulciano and Sangiovese — is serious, underpriced, and pairs well with whatever the kitchen produces. We'll sip some.

Communanza and Castellucio — The route climbs into the Sibillini Mountains toward Castellucio, the high alpine plain that floats above the surrounding valleys at 1,450 meters. In early summer the plain blooms into a carpet of wildflowers that is genuinely difficult to describe. By August, the flowers are gone, but the landscape — vast, quiet, exposed — remains one of the most singular things I've seen in Italy.

Cycling Le Marche

The roads through Le Marche's interior are among the best cycling roads in Italy — varied terrain, light traffic, and a landscape that changes constantly. The coast road offers flatter riding; the inland hills and mountain approaches offer everything from moderate climbs to serious efforts. The route can be shaped around fitness level and preference.

Guiding this trip is Luca Pelliccetti of CTF Travel, based in Fermo — as skilled a local cycling guide as you'll find anywhere in Italy, and an even better ambassador for everything that makes this region warm and genuine. He knows these roads the way you know your own neighborhood.

Why Le Marche Belongs on Your Italy List

For a traveler who wants to go deeper into Italy — who has done Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast, who wants something more real, more local, more surprising — Le Marche delivers consistently. The food is extraordinary. The cycling is excellent. The towns are alive rather than preserved. And the people, who haven't spent thirty years managing tourists, are simply happy to see you.

My family knew something when they left this place and still talked about it every day. The region has that quality — it stays with you.

This is part of my ongoing effort to go deeper into Italy's lesser-known destinations, bringing back firsthand knowledge to design the best possible active experiences for my clients. Le Marche is not a compromise or an alternative to somewhere better. It is somewhere better.

If Le Marche has been on your radar — or if this is the first time you've heard of it — I'd love to talk about building a trip there.

Reach out through the contact page. There's a lot more to come from Le Marche.

You run five days over and through the Dolomites. Then you sleep in a five-star hotel.  This is not a contradiction.

It is, in fact, the point.

I am in the early planning stages of a 2027 trip for myself and a group of running club friends — a trail running adventure tackling sections of the Alta Via delle Leggende, the "High Route of Legends." Five days, starting in Alta Badia in the heart of Ladin culture, threading through the Puez-Odle Natural Park, climbing above 3,000 meters across the Sella Massif to the summit of Piz Boé, then finishing beneath the glaciers of the south walls of the Marmolada — the highest peak in the Dolomites. This is skyrunning terrain: high-altitude ridges, scree descents, aided passages with cables and ladders through the Pale di San Martino where the word "trail" becomes generous.

Then, at the end of it: Como Alpina Dolomites. A five-star hotel. A pool. An alpine meadow panorama. A spa. A Negroni. A Michelin-starred dinner.

The Route: Alta Via delle Leggende

The Alta Via 2 — dubbed the "High Route of Legends" — is the more technical and demanding sibling to the classic Alta Via 1. Running north to south from Alta Badia (1,226m) to the Primiero Valley, it stays at elevation throughout, frequently reaching above 2,900 meters. The route passes through the Puez-Odle Natural Park, across the fortress-shaped Sella Massif, and beneath the Marmolada's enormous south face. In the Pale di San Martino, the landscape turns lunar — vast white limestone plateaus where aided pathways equipped with cables and ladders demand sure-footedness and a head for heights.

For a trail running group, this is exceptional terrain: technically challenging, visually dramatic, and culturally rich. The Dolomites were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009, and the Alta Via 2 passes through their most iconic geological features. Rifugios — traditional Alpine mountain huts — appear throughout the route, offering warm meals and shelter at the end of each day's run.

The Recovery: Como Alpina Dolomites

Como Alpina Dolomites sits in the meadows of the Alpe di Siusi — the largest high-altitude Alpine plateau in Europe — surrounded by the very peaks the trail crosses above. The property combines five-star amenities with a setting that earns the description "spectacular" without trying very hard. A pool. A full spa. Michelin-starred dining. The kind of food and wine that tastes better because you've done something to deserve it.

I've been to the Dolomites several times — mostly for easy mountain biking in the Alpe di Siusi when the wildflowers were blooming, or for difficult climbs up famous mountain passes on a road bike until my legs were cooked and my lungs were empty. But planning this trail running trip has meant going deeper — engaging with a local tour operator who knows every inch of the Dolomite trails, and meeting with the Director of Global Sales for Como Hotels to talk through what this pairing might look like. Both understood immediately. They don't need the explanation.

That's because they know what I believe: the greatest luxury you can give a tired body is the rest it has earned.

L'Equilibrio: Why This Pairing Is Not a Coincidence

That's the Yin and the Yang of it. Not two separate products for two separate people. One complete thing. You wouldn't appreciate the Weiss Bier in the mountain rifugio as much without the 3,000-foot climb preceding it. Some clients come wanting to push themselves. Some come wanting to be pampered. The best trips do both.

This is what I think of as L'Equilibrio — the balance — the organizing principle underneath everything I plan at Sentiero. The balance between action and inaction. Progress and regress. Striving and yielding.  Body and mind.  

It is my sincere hope that trips like this remind us that our path is not always as linear as we'd like.  It's up to us to embrace the complete cycle.

The Dolomites, more than anywhere I know, make this easy to understand. The mountains demand something of you. Then they give it back — in every direction you look.

Is This Trip Right for You?

The trail running version of this itinerary requires a solid base of aerobic fitness and comfort with technical mountain terrain — sustained climbs, rocky descents, and exposed passages at altitude. The hiking version of the Alta Via delle Leggende is accessible to strong recreational hikers; the trail running pace compresses the same terrain into fewer, harder days.

The luxury component requires nothing except a willingness to enjoy the fruits of your effort.

This is a 2027 trip, which means there is time to train for it, plan it properly, and build it around your schedule. If you're thinking about something like this, I'd love to start the conversation now — the earlier we plan, the better the result.

[Reach out through the contact page or email me directly at tom@huffmantravel.com.]