The mi&ti project is a journey, a journey stricly connected with charity and solidarity.
mi&ti is also a lifestyle tied together by a shared passion: bicycle.
The project is overseen by mi&ti Onlus, a non-profit organisation that aims to validate all charity-related initiatives carried out towards various causes by mi&ti.
Ride a bike to give a smile – is the motto that pushes us throughout all of our trips.
Who are we? mi&ti, Milena di Pietrantonio (mi), a stylist from Verbania and Tiziano Pirazzi (ti), mechanic worker from the Ossola area.
Milena: “I have always been into sports since I was a teenager, in fact I loved athletics, tennis and volleyball. Eventually I began to enjoy running and partecipated to marathons, for example the Intrasca valley race. Time hasn’t been kind to my ankles and knees so I fell in love with the bicycle. Gran Fondo between Piemonte, Lombardia and Liguria such as the Milano-Sanremo race and many more. Later I discovered Randonneuring, which covers long distances such as 200-300-400-500-600km of cycling. It was a new way of approaching this sport and it brought me in close touch with nature and faced me with a great challenge: riding your bike at night tempers the character. In 2003 I rode my first Paris-Brest-Paris, 1250km no stop and others followed: London-Endinburgh-London (1450km) and a trip throughout Sicily no stop for 1000km, the 1000 e 1 miglia and many more. In 2006 I won the Italian Championship for the overall covered distance. I realised that the long-distance cycling was my ideal dimension so, together with my partner Tiziano, we decided to dive into a new adventure that could combine the pleasure of cycling with a more noble purpose. That’s why we created mi&ti and our charity postcards.”
Tiziano: “Between the age of 14 and 20 I rode for various teams. My first ever approach to competitive cycling was when I joined the local Gruppo Sportivo Pievese and my last was at Salco from Empoli, Tuscany. I reached the amateur level in 1978 and achieved pretty good results. I quit competitive cycling at the young age of 22 anni, when family became the main focus but at the age of 40 I was right back at it again despite a long period off the road. I began training again and participated to a bunch of Gran Fondo and sprint races in shorter distances, like 60/70km. In 2003 I discovered Randonneuring. In 2004 I rode the Sicily no stop, a year later in 2005 the London-Endinburgh-London and i 2007 my first Paris-Brest-Paris. Such amazing feelings! I started my travels with Milena with a journey from Verbania to Croatia, precisely to Sibenik and back, where my good mate Enzo followed for about half of the trip. That’s when the idea of combining my passion for riding my bike and support meaningful causes came about… it breathed new life into our way to discover the world around us by bike.”
In 2008 we decided to begin taking trips around the world along with charity initiatives.
mi&ti, means ’you and I’ in our dialect, which belongs to the western branch of the Lombardy local language that we speak in our district of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola.
It includes also the initials of our fist names Milena and Tiziano.
We are bicycle enthusiasts, single-seater or tandem it doesn’t matter, as long as we can ride in the nature and enjoy amazing landscapes while freeing the mind.
We are everyday life and travel partners and we do cultivate day by day, year by year our passion for taking trips on two wheels.
What do we do? Since 2008, on yearly basis, we take a trip for 30-35 days, riding our bikes for about 4000-4500km with an average daily journey of 130-150km – which translates in a good 7-9h ride.
Why do we do it? Passion, love, solidarity and sense of commitment.
Every year we launch a new itinerary and a fund raising campaign connected to it. Each donation contribues to finance a project of a non-profit organisation. We encourage and offer three ways to help: purchasing a physical postcard, purchasing a digital postacard or donate an amount of your choice to the cause we chose to support.
You can read more about mi&ti 2019 by reading our brochure here.