Join Founder/Owner Rick Price for the 2008 Giro d'Italia

Experience Italy's Premier Cycling Event with ExperiencePlus!

Since 1972 we've been cycling Italy, sampling its best gelato, and chasing its phenomenal bicycle stage race -- the Giro d'Italia! This year we have doubled the opportunity for you to ride its routes, to be roadside as these superb athletes climb and descend, all while taking in breathtaking scenery of the region and enjoying superb culinary fare.

What makes the Giro d'Italia so special? Unlike the big race in France which, in recent years, has been fraught with scandal and has been commercialized beyond recognition (and hasn't been won by a Frenchman since 1985!), the Giro d'Italia - which celebrates its centennial in 2009 - remains the people's race. And it is still very much an Italian race with Italians having won the last 11 races. Of the ninety "giri d'italia" (the race wasn't held during World Wars I & II) only 21 have been won by foreigners.

As Italy recovered from World War II, it shined as a bicycle paradise. Everyone bicycled (and in many parts of Italy they still do) and everyone swelled with pride over the victories of the Italians Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi. Today bicycling is part and parcel of Italian culture and tradition in large part because of the role of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali at the Giro d'Italia during those formative years of the Italian Republic.

Following the 2008 Giro d’Italia in Italy’s Dolomites

Witness Stages Fourteen, Fifteen, and Sixteen of the Giro in Italy's Dolomite mountains. We'll be there for a stage start, a stage finish and for the time trial up the Plan de Corones.

Details - Itinerary

2008 Giro d’Italia in the Marches and Romagna

Ceramics in Faenza, San Marino, dinner at the ExperiencePlus! Farm and Headquarters, Giro Stages Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen in the Emilia-Romagna region (includes a stage start).

Details - Itinerary

Look, Plan, and Book Now - Save 20%

We have two opportunities for you to cheer on the Giro in 2008; view three stages on either trip - or enjoy six stages by taking BOTH tours and receive a 20% discount on the second one!

Chasing the Giro in the Marches and Emilia-Romagna, May 19 to May 24th

In Romagna enjoy dinner at the ExperiencePlus! Farm and European HQ. Also in Emilia-Romagna we enjoy a signature Italian lunch on the race course as we watch the Giro TV, then step outside to watch the race go by with the locals! Click here for details.

Chasing the Giro d'Italia in the Dolomites, May 23 to May 28th

In the Dolomites, ride the famous Sella Massif and the famous Plan de Corones (almost identical in length and vertical distance gained to the Alpe d'Huez on that "other" famous stage race!). Click here for more.

If you can bring a group of 5 to 8 people, enjoy your own private tour in 2008 with your own van to support your group!

Coppi Versus Bartali at the 1949 Tour of Italy

When I met Gino Bartali in Florence one September evening in 1993, I didn't have the presence of mind to ask him what it felt like that day at the Giro ...

ExperiencePlus! customers Marco and Leigh Bianco pose with 1947 TdF Stage Winner Aldo Ronconi outside his Bike Shop in Faenza, Italy

When ExperiencePlus Customers Met Aldo Ronconi

"We want to buy the yellow jersey hanging on the wall, how much is it?" The old man froze instantly as the blood rushed to his head. He turn back to us with the anger of 50 years still inside.