Are you looking for a bike tour through Rome? When visiting Rome, you can rent a bike and discover Rome by bike. This is a good way to discover the city and to get to the close-by Regional Park Appia Antica. Different companies offer bike rental as well as guided bike tours through Rome. To find out, whether a bike tour through Rome is a good idea, I got myself a bike and took a ride through the city of Rome.
Rome bike tour: Tips & Information about bike tours in Rome
Riding a bike in Rome – is that even possible?
Before giving you tips about bike rentals and bike tours in Rome, you should read the following tips and indications:
1. To get it straight from the beginning: riding a bike in Rome works pretty well, even though I have to make some comments. As you probably know, Rome was built on seven hills. As long as you stay in the city center with your bike, the streets are quite flat. However, if you want to make your way to the Quirinal, the Capitol or the Aventine you need strong muscles and should have stamina.
2. The second important advice concerns the road conditions. There are many cobble stones in Rome and even paved streets might have holes in them. Therefore, you should always watch the road when riding a bike in Rome.
3. I also advise you to avoid the main streets as a Rome visitor. Not so much for safety reasons – Roman car drivers are usually very careful and cautious when it comes to bikes – rather because of the traffic noise and car fumes. There are many smaller side roads in Rome which are perfect for riding a bike.
4. When riding a bike in Rome, don’t insist too much on compliance with traffic rules. Roman car drivers are not really used to watch out for bikes when making a left or right turn. Instead of sticking to priority rules, people in Rome rather communicate by nodding or making eye contact. If you just cross an intersection without making eye contact with other car drivers you will be likely to end up at the emergency room of a Roman hospital. Be careful!
Where to rent a bike in Rome
In the city center of Rome you might stumble across oBike rental bikes. you will not find them at fixed stations, but where the last user dropped them off, usually on large squares or on sidewalks. Download the oBike App to your smartphone before your visit to Rome. Thanks to the App you can locate, rent and pay for the availably bikes.
Besides oBike you can also find ‘traditional’ bike rentals in Rome, for example at the Villa Borghese or next to the parking office of the Regional Park Appia Antica. You can also make a reservation for a bike on the internet beforehand to make sure you get a quality bike and don’t have risk any negative surprises.
Cyclists are treated just like pedestrians in Rome. You can easily make your way through the pedestrianised streets and you will also get to sights such as the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps or the Capitol, places that are more difficult to access by car. A wonderful possibility to pass through Rome is the bike path at the Tiber which can be driven consistently from the Marconi bridge in the south to the city beach in the north.
Discover Rome by bike
The city center of Rome is not very large. On the other hand, some sights are quite far away from each other, so that it is impossible to see everything in just one day by foot. Do not count on public transport in Rome. There are no official bus schedules and usually you wait much longer for the bus than it would have taken you by foot to get somewhere. If you do everything in Rome by foot, you will walk for several kilometres a day and you will need good shoes to avoid blisters.
Luckily, to do sightseeing in Rome, there are many alternatives to public transport. Hop-on hop-off buses that let you get on and off at different bus stops all around the city are well-known. Rome also offers sightseeing tours on Segways, in Golf Carts, on a vespa, in a fiat 500 or by bike.
If you don’t know Rome that well you should probably not head out on a bike alone. Participating in a guided bike tour you will get safely through the city and discover new sights and places within a fixed time frame. In my opinion, if you only have a few days in Rome, a guided bike tour through Rome is more advisable than random biking through Rome alone.
Bike tour companies in Rome
There are several bike tour companies in Rome. The company Wheely is convenient because of its location in Via Labicana, just 200 meters away from the Colosseum. To get to Wheely, take metro line B to Colosseum. You can also take tram line 3 or one of the bus lines 51, 75, 85 or 87 to the station Labicana.
Wheely offers guided bike tours through Rome in different languages. You can book for example a 3 hour or even a full day trip. Helmets and child seats for children who are up to 4 years old are included in the price.
Via Labicana is close to the Regional Park Appia Antica. Wheely offers guided bike tours inside the park including the visit of the catacombs. The 6 hour guided bike tour takes you to the park of the aqueducts in the south of Rome. There you can see remains of several aqueducts, very impressive!
Personally, I also like the guided bike to to the Testaccio market in Rome. This Roman market is not just a food market but a culinary heaven, where you can find the famous “Morde e via” sandwiches, loaded with Roman specialties. On the banks of the Tiber of the Testaccio used to be the central Roman slaughterhouse. Today you can still find many traditional dishes there. This is also where food deliveries from overseas arrived back in the days. You can also visit an ancient hill with pottery shards at Testaccio.
Besides these, I’ll admit, unusual bike tours Wheely also offers traditional guided bike tours through Rome. These tours will lead you past the most well-known sights of Rome and its most beautiful squares and places. You can also book a panorama tour to the Roman hills or a evening ride to discover beautiful Rome in dawn. Try it!
(c) Copyright pictures Wheely
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