Green Road Award, the 'Cycling Tourism Oscars' reward Liguria

The Green Road Award, considered the 'Italian Oscar of Cycle Tourism', is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Every year it awards the best cycle routes in our country and the regions that promote holidays on two wheels with services for slow tourism. This year in Trieste, winner in 2024 with the Ciclovia Pedemontana, the awards are being given: in first place the Liguria Region for the 'Cycling Riviera', in second place Basilicata for the 'Ciclovia Meridiana' and in third place the Puglia Region for the 'Ciclonica'. Special mentions also to other territories: the Alis (Logistics Association of Sustainable Intermobility) award to the Lazio Region for the 'GTL-Gran Tour del Lazio', the special Press award to Piedmont for the 'Ciclovia Bar to Bar' and a Legambiente mention to Lombardy for the 'Ciclovia del Sole'. The award for the 'bike friendly' foreign destination goes to Slovenia while the special Cammini-Oscar del cicloturismo 10th edition award goes to the Umbria Region for 'La Via di Francesco'.

The awards are given to cycle routes that meet criteria of excellence, including design, promotion, signage and services. The announcement, which takes place a few days before World Bicycle Day on June 3, invites you to discover the winning routes.

The 'Cycling Riviera' is 33 km long and can be traveled on foot or by bicycle, from Ospedaletti to Imperia, and was created by redeveloping a part of the coastal route of the old disused Genoa-Ventimiglia railway. Completely flat - with a compact surface and a good average width that makes it accessible to users of all types, families and tourists of all ages, cyclists, pedestrians, wheelchairs - the Cycling Riviera touches various tourist locations in Western Liguria and represents an excellent infrastructure for sustainable transport, much appreciated by residents for daily travel thanks also to the intermodality guaranteed by the railway network along the entire route, also equipped with refreshment points, bike rental, automated toilets as well as precise signage.

In second place is the Ciclovia Meridiana, a 295 km circular route that starts from Potenza and crosses the Appennino Lucano Val d'Agri-Lagonegrese National Park. Along the road it crosses 22 villages, and areas of high naturalistic interest, protected oases, archaeological sites, places of historical interest within the Appennino Lucano Park.

The Ciclovia Meridiana is divided into two smaller rings, one to the north of 152 km and one to the south of 146 km. With the 'services card', cycle tourists can locate bike services, assistance points, charging stations for e-bikes, accommodation and places to eat.

Finally, the Ciclonica, in Puglia, is a 350 km ring route starting and finishing in Lecce and, thanks to its division into five smaller sub-rings, offers the possibility of living a unique cycling experience between the sea, parks, nature reserves and inland villages, even along shorter routes. The road connects, in fact, the network of paths, secondary and rural routes, points of interest and bike-friendly facilities present in the area while its travel is made easy and intuitive by the precise indications provided by the app and the new signage currently being installed.

Born in 2015, the Green Road Award has contributed to the affirmation of cycling tourism in our country, encouraging the Italian regions to invest in infrastructure and services. Cycling tourism is today, in fact, one of the main tourism trends in Italy, which continues to attract new enthusiasts: according to the 'Travelling with a bike 2025' report by Isnart-Unioncamere, in 2024 there were 89 million presences (+54% compared to 2023), with an economic impact of almost 9.8 billion euros.