To rest my feet between hikes, I rented a mountain bike for an “easy” day in the mountains of North Italy.
I did a good chunk of this loop. The bus delivers you to a high pass. And you roll generally downhill.
The Rails to Trails sections were awesome. But at times I was pushed out into astonishingly dangerous holiday traffic. I can’t believe they don’t have several deaths a day.
The cycling was brilliant. So much fun that I ended up cycling about 120km. Probably the longest day in the saddle I’ve ever done.
(There was some chaffing.)
My 19 Euro / day bike was great. The company – Noleggio – does a very professional job. I could drop the bike anywhere around the loop.
Check this out … a custom water bottle holder for a 1.5 litre Coke Lite.
Brilliant!
besthike.com 
The only Italian road rule seems to be “don’t run over anyone” but it seems to be OK to almost run them over. At pedestrian crossings judge whether the car can stop, and step off the kerb, because they will never stop otherwise. On a bicycle it must be pure adrenalin.
We just got back from a bike trip in Umbria and I have to agree with Ken about the rule. However i do have to say my experience is that in Italy drivers expect bikes to be on the road whereas in the US many drivers don’t know how to react.