Freewheeling in TUSCANY

A cycling holiday through medieval cities and lush scenery is a great way to absorb culture and get off the beaten track

- Sharon Sweeney

Pedalling through beautiful Tuscan landscapes, along rivers and canals, time evaporates as you ease into travelling the slow way. My partner Nik, who travels almost everywhere by bike, and I, a lapsed cyclist, were on a seven-night, self-guided cycle tour that took us on a 275km route from Pisa's leaning tower to Florence's Ponte Vecchio. Staying in hotels just outside the city centres, we'd stoke up on plentiful breakfasts, then set off on four- to five-hour cycles. In the evenings, we'd find a restaurant and dine on ribollita (Tuscan soup) and rich pasta served with artichokes, asparagus and lobster, washed down with a chilled Vermentino Toscana.

Basking in around 30 degrees of sunshine, the countryside was all shades of green. Vineyards, olive groves and wheat fields punctuated by spires of emerald cypresses rolled into a backdrop of hills and distant mountains. We cycled at a pace to suit ourselves, on paths fringed with red poppies and yellow field marigolds. Every now and then we'd stop to glug some water and admire the scenery, watch an egret take off from the banks of a river or see swifts circling buildings.

As in life, the route was sometimes smooth, sometimes rough, with tough uphills and thrilling descents. Between medieval cities, tractors would chug along country lanes, two-stroke scooters would fill our nostrils with smelly fumes, we'd hear the hum of machines as we passed through small industrial areas, and breathe in the scent of rich jasmine as we breezed alongside lush gardens.

Pisa to Lucca