Como to Ancona (Italy)
26th October 2020 – 20th November 2020
870 km – Mostly flat
We arrived in Italy through Como after a full day of heavy rain and cold weather. At the border, the customs officers waved at us to say welcome and didn’t even bother to stop us to check our passports. It was another easy border crossing and we were in the third country of our trip. We had no place to stay so it was time to look for something.
We found a small B&B pretty cheaply and when we arrived at the address we were in front of a tower with flats, wondering if we were at the right place. We called the lady and she came down to meet us, offered to put Kali & Mutxo in her garage and brought us to her flat on the second floor. As we were soaking wet, we thought she wouldn’t accept us. But not at all, she put some towels on the floor to create a path from the entrance to the bathroom where we could put all our wet belongings. Already a great welcome in this new country.
The next day the weather was absolutely brilliant with sunshine and great temperatures – perfect to start our journey in Italy. We’ve discovered the magnificent lake of Como and its surroundings. We decided to take the direction of Milan. After our first day ride in Italy, we stopped at a farm to ask to put our tent for the night.
The farmer was more than happy to accept, offered us some coffees and dulce (sort of crème caramel), told us we could use the toilets and shower, and even set up some lights with tables and chairs to be able to prepare our meal. On our third day, we were in Milan, which is an amazing city. The architecture is stunning, we stopped for pictures in front of the Duomo of Milan (Cathedral), had a quick bite and decided to get out of the city to look for a place to spend the night.
Crossing the city took us a full day ridding, we couldn’t believe how big is the city and its suburbs. In the evening as it was starting to be dark, we stayed on a horse farm in a little village just on the outskirts of the city.
Then we headed to Pavia and its lovely canal with cycling paths next to it as we wanted to catch the Eurovelo 8 which brings you down to Greece. This brought us to cycle along the Pô river going all across northern Italy on the east coast. From there Gianluigi, a guy we’ve nether met before but who was following us on our Facebook page, was sending a message to us every evening to tell us which road to take the day after and what to visit. We had our own virtual tour guide to visit his lovely country. The only problem with following the Pô river was, we had foggy weather every day.
As coronavirus cases were raising everywhere in Europe, we heard the news we wouldn’t be able to go and stay in Slovenia, which was our next move. So, we had to rethink our plans. We cycled through Piacenza, had a day rest in Cremona, then as we had enough of the fog, and there was no point to follow the river anymore. As suggested by Gianluigi, we decided to go a bit further south, away from the river. It was the right decision as the more we were going away from the Pô and the better the weather started to be. After a week in the fog, we rediscovered the blue sky and it was more than welcome…
Pantxika and Fred (KALIMUTXOWORLDTOUR)
Pantxika Goyhetche and Fred Lolliot are a french couple who lived in Chester U.K. for the last 7 years. In August 2018 they decided to make their first trip by bicycle from Chester to Hendaye in France using the Eurovelo 1 known as “la Vélodyssée”. As they really enjoyed this first experience they became obsessed to do an around the world trip. Kalimutxoworldtour was born which is the name of their two bicycles, Fred is riding Kali and Pantxika is riding Mutxo and after two years of preparation, they took off on Saturday 05th September 2020 from Ahetze, a small village next to Biarritz in France, for five years journey to cross as many countries as they can.
FB: https://www.facebook.com/kalimutxoworldtour
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kalimutxoworldtour
YT: https://youtube.com/channel/UCvVGDKRcN_5se1ZRNrgcXyQ
Excerpt from BIKE Magazine, click here to continue reading the full article
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