first alternative Sarajevo-milano

 

 

 

ACTUALLY, more like 1150km and 5000m ascent 

NOTE: elevation is not what it is in reality: bike maps won't let you plan a route across water, but there is a ferry that will take you from Rab island to Krk island in croatia, south of the Istrian peninsula, avoiding a long climb along the coast, saving you probably approx 150km and 1000m climb, but involving a fairly cheap ferry ride.

Secondly, we went all the way around Istria (the peninsula on the border between coastal croatia, slovenia and italy): firstly cause there are nice little towns there, and secondly because there's a wonderful bike path from Porec to Trieste (called the 'parenzana'), it's seriously beautiful, going through the slovenian salt marshes, and we have good hosts there. It would also reduce your climb by approx 700-800 metres incline, since you'd be circumventing the bordering mountain between trieste and Rijeka. 

Also, depends on your intention, but on the italian part, we went further south than the route shown here: going through mantova and cremona - with really nice hosts and nice little towns (cremona is the european capital of violin making), which would be longer but flatter along the Pó plaine.

pros: I can help with hosting for most of the way starting at ploce, croatia, on the bosnian border.

• once out of bosnia, it's a fairly regular and gently slopeing road along the adriatic, with a few short exceptions, so a 60-70km daily average is quite realistic, again, more like 80-100km in italy, and 50km in bosnia.

you'd be next to the sea a lot of the time in august: so bathing whenever and wherever you want. BUT very touristy this time of year (hosting won't be as easy?) and veeery hot.