2014 Italy

Tour 2014 Verbania – Italian Peninsula – Verbania
Viaggio “Telethon, donate a smile”

starting date: 26th July 2015, Trobaso – Verbania
arrival date: 24th August 2014, Trobaso – Verbania
across: Italy, Austria, Switzerland
distance covered (km): 4.100
cycling time (h): 213
bycicles: Milena Merita, Tiziano Specialized
flat tires: 7

postcards sent: 500
charity organisation: Fondazione Telethon
amount devolved: 2.400€

Watch our videos on mi&ti Onlus youtube channel.

Here is a quick summary of our journey:

26th July 2014, it is a Saturday and we are ready to mount on our steel horses and head towards Another adventure. It rains! Will this be a sign of good luck?!

My daughter tells me: “Mom, are you sure you want to leave today. Can’t you postpone to tomorrow?” My mind is set: we are leaving today!.

My bike is pretty loaded up and so is Tiziano’s.

We start heading South towards the sea of Savona, La Spezia, to then cut to Lucca and eventually reach Prato where we have scheduled a stop at our dear friend and sponsorbe.mi.vaMr Marco Benesperi, a lovely chap. He sorts us out for lunch, then we are on our way toFirenze and all the way down to the capital, Roma.

There we stop for a day as we are guests of Mr Carlo di Ostia.

Carlo shows us around the beatiful a truly chaotic Roma.

It is not long before we are riding again south, towards Napoli, Amalfi, Sorrento.

What a sight to see! We cruise through Amazing cities surrounded by lemon trees and the scent in the air, the vividness of the colors is overwhelming.

In Sorrento another good friend is waiting to meet us, Mariano. Good catching up with him over a pizza.

We spend the night in a lovely b&b ran by Juliana, who is a 30 years old outstanding young lady who happens to hold the Guinness Record 2016 for the world tour on bike in solitary.

Our travels takes us further inside the Peninsula in order to reach the East coast. We pass by Avellino, Benevento and stop in a Morcone at our friend Domenico’s. A real tough cookie who shared several randonneuring with us and is also a Gran Fondo enthusiast. We then proceed to reach Vasto and head North to find in a quick sequence Pescara, Rimini, Cesenatico, Chioggia, Venezia, Portogruaro.

At that stage we don’t quite feel like is summer anymore since we experience mostly rain and cold, a part from the day we crossed the epic Passo dello Stelvio, at an altitude of 2770m.

In the morning I open the blinds of our b&b room and I rejoyce at the sight of a clear blue sky. “Tiziano, check this out. We are gonna have fun today!” Just the time for a big breakfast and we are quickly ready to load the gear and ride through apple orchards of the countryside, while afar we spot the mountains barely sprinkled with snow on their tips. We shortly realise that the particular segment we are about to cross will be a series of hairpin bends, precisely 48 before we can rest exhausted but proud of our physical achievement. While we are setting up to take a few bragging pictures, who do we spot? Barbara and Massimo. “What are you guys doing here? What a lovely surprise!”. They are out with their bikes too for a couple of days before heading home. With Barbara I joined several randonneuring. She is a strong woman and incredible cyclist nicknamed ‘Il camoscio’ – (the Chamois) – because of the way she used to climb uphill on her bike.

The remaining days were mostly a comback of rain and cold.

Livigno, Passo del Bernina (altitude 2323m), St. Moritz, Chiavenna, Laveno. From there we are literally a few pedal strokes away from home.