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Day 4 Italian Coast VR Bike Tour, 17 km

 Day 4 Italian Coast VR Cycling Tour, 17 km

Oculus Quest 2 + Magene Sensor + VZ Fit Explorer = VR cycling...the opportunity to cycle the world on an exercise bike, in Virtual Reality

Today's section of the map started out with tunnels. LOTS of tunnels. Even more than yesterday.  

Sometimes I'd just get out of a tunnel, see a bit of blue sky and sea, and then head right back in to another tunnel. And another.  

After the tunnels, the route took me up high into the mountains. 

There were some pretty villages.

And lots of mountain views. 

There were some coastal views, but a lot of the coast was hidden because in many places, the trees grew too tall and thick to see through. 

The route also took me down super narrow streets. 

And super winding streets. There were a few wonky bits, where the bike fell below the map a bit, but they didn't last long. 

It wasn't my favorite portion of the ride, but it was nice. 

Day 3, Italian Coast VR bike tour, 20 km

 Day 3, Italian Coast Cycle Tour in VR, 20 km

Oculus Quest 2 + VZ Fit App + Magene Sensor = VR Bike Tour

I am still having sooooo much fun riding my exercise bike along the beautiful Italian Coast. 

Everywhere I looked on this ride, I saw beauty. Sparkling turquois seas, little cloth covered tables under manicured trees...

And beautiful buildings everywhere I look.  Oh, and statues, lots of statues. 

And tunnels, lots of tunnels.  LONG ones, cutting through mountains along the coast.  

Sometimes the tunnels came out onto cute little seaside towns, and other times they led only to more tunnels. 

Lots of bridges on this ride too! 

More pastel towns. 

And plenty of rugged beaches. 

And did I mention the tunnels, lol?  Soooo many tunnels. 

Thankfully this one was a short one. Most are really super long. 

I was sad to see the end of this ride. It was really beautiful!  

TWD Saints & Sinners/11/Sneaking Through a Tower Base/Oculus Quest 2 VR

Day 2 Italy (Italian Coast) VR Cycling Tour with VZ Fit Explorer

22 GORGEOUS km along the Italian Coast, in VR, on my exercise bike, in my living room...

Oculus Quest 2 + Magene Cadence Sensor + VZ Fit Explorer App = VR Cycling Tour

 Day 2 of my VR Italian Coast Bike Ride was spectacular! Even prettier than Day 1!

The ride started beautifully again, and one thing that really helps make the rides look nice is that in Italy, there are lots of stone walls that are the same distance from the road for miles, so they look good instead of wonky in 3D.  Also a lot of the houses are built right close up to the curb which helps them to look nice in 3D as well. Things get wonky when one house is close to the curb and another is far back, and that doesn't seem to happen much in Italy, so it all looks good. 

Much of this ride had glorious ocean views, mountain views, or both!

I rode up and down curvy mountain roads and in VR, you really feel the twists and turns.   There were only a few spots where the turns weren't great and I rode "off" the map and into the blue void, but I kept pedaling and the game put me back right again, lol. 

The google car must have travelled this route in 2020 because many people were wearing masks. These 4 masked people were glaring at the unmasked people on the other side of the road. I can't say that I blame them. Everyone should be wearing a mask in public now.  We have 19 covid cases in town now, and we've gone months with none. We're back in lockdown here in Ontario, Canada, and that's one of the reasons why I thought it would be fun to get away from it all and do a virtual bike tour of Italy :-). 

I really wanted to get off my bike and go sit on the outdoor patio of this restaurant for a nice cool drink. Instead, I stopped pedaling and my bike stopped. I had a sip of my bottled water, which fits perfectly under the headset, lol. 

I visited Italy when I was 12 years old, but now that I'm touring it in VR, it is back on my bucket list as a place I want to visit one day.  I'd have to save loads of money though. 

This portion of the ride was so cool. I passed pretty beaches and rode through long tunnels through the mountain.  All in VR.  It's hard to explain how cool it is to feel like I'm a part of the photos you're seeing. I was actually riding down that road, and I actually cycled through that tunnel. 

I'm so glad that VZ Fit Play gives us a pop up map at the end of the rides because Strava messed up and broke the map up into three segments, on 3 separate maps.  Twice because I paused to take photos, and once because I went to grab my shoes because my feet hurt from pedaling in my slippers, lol. 

Here you can see this segment of the Strava Map is just under 10 km.  There are two other segments that make up the 22 km I did today. 

I am having so much fun and can't wait for Day 3.  Today was the end of week 2 with this app, and I 112 km for the week!  So amazing!!!!

Day 1 Italy (Italian Coast) VR Cycling Tour

 Italian Coast Cycling Tour in VR with VZ Fit Explorer

Pandemic Bike Tour from Living Room

Oculus Quest 2 + Magene Cadence Sensor + VZ Fit Explorer App = VR Cycling Tour

VZ Fit Explorer has many cool features, among them, my favorite is the ability to make my own cycling routes/maps.  I decided since I'm stuck at home during lockdown, it might be fun to go on a VR cycling tour. I chose Italy because I thought it would be pretty, and I chose the coast because I like water views.  

From the minute I teleported to my starting area, just outside of Genoa Italy, on the coast, I was blown away by the scenery.  The architecture is gorgeous, as are the palm trees, flowers, and the many stone walls. 

Cycling through this area is amazing, even though the VZ fit app is not perfect because it is based on Google Street View, which is not perfect.  Despite the imperfections, I am blown away but the sense of immersion and movement I get in the app.  When I'm in the app, it feels like I'm riding a bike. I'm the size of a person on a bike, surrounded by life sized buildings, trees, vehicles, etc., on every side. 

I ride in country mode, in first person, which means I am invisible but can see my bike below me.  The wheels turn, and the bike casts a shadow on the road. The road moves under me.  The scenery passes. 

When I slow down, my VR bike slows down, and when I stop, it stops. If I speed up, so does it. When I cycle up or down hills or around corners, it feels as if I am really cycling up or down hills, or around corners...except I don't have to work harder to go up hills. I could, if I wanted to. I could increase the tension on my exercise bike when I climb hills, but I couldn't climb hills in real life with my asthma so I have no interest in also being unable to climb hills in VR, lol. I LOVE that I can cycle up hills without having an asthma attack, in VR. 

This was one of the prettiest rides yet.  Hawaii was also pretty, but I think I like Italy even more, because in addition to gorgeous water views and palm trees, there is amazing architecture. 

I am going to try to do a new segment of my virtual bike tour every day; approx. 20 km give or take, ever day.  It depends on the mapping tool. It's hard to make the map follow the route I want exactly, so I have to make some rides shorter just so I can force the route to go where I want it to go. 

I really love the color of the buildings in Italy; so lovely. 

At the end of my ride, after I go through the finish line I get this pop up, showing the route I took, which is very cool. 

The app also lets you connect with Strava so you can keep track there as well. Here is the Strava map. The only problem with Strava is if you pause the ride, even for a few seconds to take photos, it breaks it up into segments. 

I really enjoyed this route and look forward to the rest. I wonder how far I'll get around Italy?