We are Andrea (38), Caterina (39), and Viola (11): a vegan teacher, an environmental technician, and a young girl (woe betide us if we dare call her a child again) who plays volleyball.
We live in the province of Milan (Novate Milanese): we use bikes for our daily commute, but we’re certainly not talking about bike training.
Cate was the first victim of cycle tourism: as soon as we got together, I suggested we visit a friend in Friuli. We cycled from Milan, with our beautiful tent, and didn’t miss out on the return trip either. As soon as Viola was able to ride a bike, we tried again, all together.
It was 2020, Viola was 6 years old, and we spent a couple of weeks in southern Germany, Lake Constance, and the Rhine River: it was a success. We discovered that we liked it, and now we go somewhere every summer.
Since then, we have traveled around Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, and this summer we decided to go all out: from Tarvisio (Jova concert for cyclists only) to Budapest (Sziget festival).
For a few years now, we’ve been posting photos and a map of our day’s cycling on social media every evening: friends and acquaintances we meet again in September tell us how eagerly they await reading about our adventures.
What we want to convey is that anyone can do it. And you don’t need to be a super athlete to give it a try. Discovering this way of traveling is wonderful.
What we regret: as she grows up, Viola would like to go on vacation with her friends… “But Dad, where am I going to find a friend who cycles 90 km a day?”