Italy Tour Route / Bologna to South Tyrol / MotoGeo Routes

This route is from our Scrambling Around Italy Adventure, where MotoGeo took 5 MotoGeo fans on the Italian adventure of a lifetime, riding Ducati Scramblers in the incredible roads of the Dolomites.

Our Italian tour started in the Bologna, home of Ducati.

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Click the map for key points we visited on our adventure.

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Follow routes for Days 3-5 – Seis, South Tryol to Bologna

The night of arrival was spent in Hotel Amadeus, which is perfectly situated for a visit to the Ducati Museum. It is comfortable and reasonably priced.

Day 1 – Bologna to Castelfranco Veneto

We took a tour of the Ducati Factory and museum to see how these beautiful machines are created.

If you want a tour of the Ducati factory then make sure you plan in advance. Remember this is a working factory, meaning tours on the weekend will be limited to the museum and the factory shuts down in August so make sure you plan you trip with this in mind if you want to include a factory tour in your adventure.

The route north from Bologna to the Dolomites can been a pretty boring one as it’s incredibly flat! However there is a motorcycle oasis halfway in the hills of Colli Euganei. Every road around Colli Euganei is wonderful for motorcyclists and you can easily spend hours enjoying these hills. The town of Arquà Petrarca gives a beautiful setting to enjoy a pizza for lunch at the Pizzeria San Marco in the centre. Bar Alla Loggia on the opposite side of the square does a great gelato for desert if you’ve got room for it!

Next stop after the hills is the stunning historic town of Padova and Café Pedrocchi for speciality cup of their mint coffee, delicious, but be warned it’s not the cheapest!

The town of Padova is full of incredible architecture and beautiful piazzas.

From Padova it’s a short ride to the Medival town of Castelfranco Veneto, a town with a real castle constructed 1211 in the centre.

We stayed in Hotel Alla Torre, which is actually built into the castle walls!

Next to the hotel is the Restaurant Alla Torre, with a large selection of typical Italian food at a reasonable price. Try and get a table outside and enjoy the relaxing ambiance of the town.

Day 2 – Castelfranco Veneto – Seis, South Tyrol

Leaving Castelfranco Veneto early in the morning we headed to Asolo, this picturesque hilltop town is the very first foothills of the Dolomites and is home to motorcycle gear specialist Alpinestars. There are no factory tours at Alpinestars, so instead take a few minutes for breakfast coffee and croissant in the town square at Caffè Centrale.

After our exclusive tour of Alpinestars we headed to Valodobbiadene, home of Prosecco for lunch. The Salis Restaurant Enoteca was the perfect location overlooking the vineyards of the Cartizze hills, where the grapes for the very best Prosecco in the world are grown.

The Salis Ristorante Enoteca is a high end restaurant, the food was delicious and location was outstanding. It was a slight deviation from our usual MotoGeo rough and ready affair. If you are looking for something a little easier on the wallet, then we recommend Osteria Senz’Oste (Restaurant without a host) Here you can pick some salami, cheese and bread from the cottage, leave your money at the honesty till and enjoy your meal amongst the vines with a beautiful view over the valley.

From lunch we headed into the heart of the Dolomites through some of the best motorcycling roads in the world.

Firstly, the San Baldo Pass is the next highlight. This feat of engineering climbs 706 metres through a series of tunnels blasted into the mountainside. It is a gorgeous sight, but be careful as the tunnels are damp an super slippy.

Check out our onboard run of the San Boldo Pass.

Next ride through the valley to Agordo for a quick coffee break. This town is really worth a stop, beautiful views in a beautiful Italian town.

The two main passes to complete the days ride are Passo Campolongo and Gardena Pass. These are two sides of the square that forms the Sella Ronda and surrounds the Piz Boè mountain in the centre. The road quality is good and the passes are open all year round (Check in winter as there may be occasional closures depending on weather) The views from both of these passes are stunning. The dominating rock faces of the Dolomites rise high into the sky and the valleys below always look incredible. There are a number of tight hairpins in these routes and be careful of Italian drivers who can meet you on the wrong side of the road as you come around the corner.

We took a bed for the night in the Hotel Ritterhof as heavy rain had come in by this point. The hotel is of good quality and has a decent restaurant. The food in South Tyrol is more Austrian than Italian and was very good from the hotel.

Close to the hotel is a camping site if that’s what you’d prefer Camping Seiser Alm.

Now get on a bike and ride this awesome adventure!

Motorbike Hire:

HPMotorrad – Get 5% discount using discount code: MotoGeo

Roads:

Colli Euganei – Between Bologna and Padova, all roads in this area.

San Boldo Pass – San Boldo

Passo Campolongo – Arraba

Gardena Pass – Corvara

Eats:

Pizzeria San Marco – Arquà Petrarca

Cafè Pedrocchi – Padova

Pizzeria Alla Torre (not just pizza) – Castelfranco Veneto

Caffè Central – Asolo

Salis Ristorante Enoteca – Valdobbiadene

Osteria Senz’Oste – Valdobbiadene

Hotel Ritterhof – Seis, South Tyrol

Sleeps:

Amadeus Hotel – Bologna

Hotel Alla Torre – Castelfranco Veneto

Hotel Ritterhof – Seis, South Tyrol

Camping Seiser Alm – Seis South Tyrol

Sights:

Ducati Museum

Alpinestars Head Quarters

Follow the rest of this Italian Tour Route – Days 3-5 – Seis, South Tyrol to Bologna