“Are you crazy?” was a rather reserved objection from Italian friends to my plan. “You can ride a bike in Verona, in Perugia, maybe even in Florence, but never in Rome! That’s really crazy!” But of course I could, I replied stubbornly.
A month later in Rome: I choose Sunday. Then the traffic in Italy’s capital is like in Munich on a busy Friday afternoon – relatively quiet by Roman standards. The concierge at the Anantara Palazzo Naiadi hotel on the Piazza della Repubblica, who got me the bike, doesn’t ask me if I’m crazy. But he asks again if I really want to ride my bike. “We also offer a great golf cart tour of Rome for our guests,” he says, perhaps trying to change my mind. “Great!” I reply, “I’ll do that tomorrow.”
After just the first few meters, meter by meter and street by street, I mutate from a regular German cyclist into a being that doesn’t actually exist: a Roman cyclist. There are good reasons why cyclists are not part of the street scene here. Right-turn lanes are becoming overtaking routes for motorists who are driving straight ahead. Cyclists quickly feel like they are in a swarm of cars.
Source: Source: OpenStreetMap, WELT infographic
It’s buzzing all around and buzzing in the brain. It quickly becomes clear: Rome is a world cultural city, has 900 churches and 13 obelisks, but bad roads. Again and again potholes and cobblestones. After all: The drivers see and curve around the few cyclists. Elegant and skillful!
Parking directly in front of St. Peter’s Basilica – no problem
Seen from the saddle of a bicycle, you are always close. Not just the car avalanches, but also the wonderful palazzi, the dilapidated houses in the narrow streets, as well as the seductive ice cream parlors. Just hold it: no problem! Of course, the bike is parked directly in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Pantheon or the Colosseum.
Cyclists who pass sights such as the Colosseum do not need to worry about parking
Quelle: Getty Images/Alexander Spatari
As a cyclist in Germany, you usually cheat your way to the front row at a red traffic light. In Rome it is different. First of all, it is difficult in terms of space, because two lanes are made into three, and three are often made into four. The cars are close together.
In addition, the first row is occupied anyway: ten to twelve motorcycles are squeezed side by side here like at the mass start, large and small, scooters and scooters, Vespa and Moto Guzzi. When it turns green, the engines roar as if the simple via were a racetrack.
In the city of three million with almost no bike paths, I met eight cyclists this Sunday, not counting delivery services and the cyclists on the banks of the Tiber. The cycle route along the Tiber is wonderful and the tour from the Tiber Island to Castel Sant’Angelo is definitely recommended for a pleasure trip.
Bike lanes are hardly visible
But if you want to make a detour into the city in between, you have to sweaty drag your bike from the path next to the riverbed up steep stairs – around 50 steps. The other bike lanes, mostly pop-ups that emerged during the pandemic, are now hard to spot. For the most part, the marking paint has already been stripped from the cars.
If you want to make a detour into the city from the path next to the Tiber, you have to carry your bike up many stairs
What: Victoria Kraft
Reports that the Romans built or at least marked dozens of kilometers of cycle paths during the pandemic cannot be true. The few cyclists I meet say in unison: “No, no, no, that can’t be. They didn’t do anything for us! I don’t know any new bike lanes and I cycle across Rome every day. I feel like I did before Covid, like an exotic with my bike,” says Cristina, 25, an assistant in a Fiat branch.
It’s Sunday, her boyfriend is with her. “It’s okay to ride a bike for fun, but as a means of transport, a bike just isn’t cool in Rome. I go to work on a Vespa,” explains Flavio.
Flavio is the only man I see on a bike that day, apart from the delivery services and the cyclists on the banks of the Tiber. I too can only find one bicycle lane marked in red in the center of Rome: It leads from the Tiber to the Circus Maximus, where chariot races once took place in front of more than 100,000 visitors.
Today I do a leisurely lap on gravel there, continue via the Colosseum to the Vittoriano, the national monument in Rome. There’s a puny bike lane there, but it’s largely taken up by the crowds of pedestrians.
Rome is a city for cars and scooters
Franca also rode a bicycle for around 50 years. Always from home to Campo de Fiori and back. Her market stall there is her second home: “I’m 88 years old now, so cycling isn’t so easy anymore. Too bad.” Now she drives the subway. But even their expansion is progressing slowly.
The colorful market in Campo de Fiori is worth a visit
Quelle: Universal Images Group via Getty Images/Education Images
No wonder: cars and scooters were always preferred in Rome. Also because Rome is a city on top of a city: if you dig anywhere, you quickly come across ancient Rome. Then the archaeologists have to come first, excavations take place and the subway construction suddenly takes twice or three times as long as planned.
Franca lets me try different olives and an old balsamic vinegar, I buy some fruit and set off back into the maze of Rome streets. This can sometimes make you tired because you can easily lose your way. So I also drive in pedestrian zones and one-way streets against the direction of travel. After all, I’m something that doesn’t really exist.
Invisible to the police as a cyclist
A vehicle of the Carabinieri comes toward me. But I have the feeling that I am not there for the law enforcement officers. Their eyes behind the black sunglasses just don’t seem to see the cyclist who is breaking the traffic rules in the middle of Rome.
For the black trousers with their elegant red seam stripes, road traffic is rather unworthy anyway, because as a carabinieri you actually belong to the military. During the wars they were behind the home ranks and made sure nobody deserted. No cyclist is interested in that! Even the city police don’t mind that I make my way to the Spanish Steps through the crowded pedestrian zone. There are simply no cyclists in the way the Romans see themselves. That’s why the police see nothing and say nothing.
On the Piazza Navona, a look at the map will help you plan your route
What: Victoria Kraft
I just can’t believe it, I cycle to a Roman traffic warden in the pedestrian zone and ask her the way to Piazza Navona. She doesn’t mind my bike in the slightest and is extremely polite. The way is a little complicated, she says at first.
Then she points to the one-way street behind her: “It’s best to drive through this street. That’s the easiest way!” Mind you, she points against the direction of travel and wishes you a nice day, “una buona giornata”. Again no reactions in this street: nobody honks, nobody scolds. The Romans can swear like cane sparrows!
After the bike ride to relax in the pool
Rome’s center is clear, actually quite small and mostly flat. The famous seven hills already marked the city limits in Caesar’s time. On the way home in the evening, however, the Piazza della Repubblica is a long stretch uphill. I really have to pedal.
But the hotel has a lovely rooftop pool to relax in after a long day, plus there’s a sauna and two steam rooms. That fits – the “Palazzo Naiadi” stands directly on a World Heritage Site, it was built on the foundations of the Baths of Diocletian. Parts of it can be seen under glass in the basement of the hotel.
A few days later, I tell the taxi driver who takes me to the airport about my experience in his city. He turns back to me in disbelief, looks at me closely and says: “Wonderful! And you’re still alive!”
Tips and information:
Cycle: A rental bike costs 13 euros per day, an e-bike 25 euros, for example at Bicibaci (bicibaci.com) or Easy Bike Rent (easybikerent.it).
Accommodation: Hotel “Anantara Palazzo Naiadi”, modern luxury in a palace on a world heritage site, top restaurant, double room from 350 euros, (anantara.com/de/palazzo-naiadi-rome). “Radisson Blue”, small but chic rooms from 190 euros (radissonhotels.com/de-de/reiseziel/italien/rome).
Additional Information: Official tourism website of the city of Rome (turismoroma.it/en); Website of the Italian National Tourist Board ENIT (italia.it/de).
Participation in the trip was supported by Anantara Hotels & Resorts. You can find our standards of transparency and journalistic independence at axelspringer.com/de/Werte/downloads.