What’s the most you ever earned your evening beer? And when did we stop putting love and art into the architecture we built?
I have been very excited for weeks now to get to Italy. Excited to be able to speak Italian again, excited to cross regions of the country I do not know at all. Of course, I was mostly looking forward to good food and coffee.
After we crossed the alps by bike, I thought nothing could hinder me anymore, in terms of up hill cycling. “I mean I crossed the highest mountain chain around, so what could be harder than that?”, I thought.
I was wrong.
Because even if it is “just hills” they can be steep, and Italy is full of them. At least if you are, like me trying to avoid the flat part between Torino and Venezia because you think that there is too much agriculture going on and therefore not enough wildness to enjoy or camp in.
It is also getting hotter day by day and I realize that I am definitely not a heat person. Therefore, my siestas are starting to take over the average of each day.
Anything after 11 and before five or six is just heat suffering.
But this isn’t about complaining. Because the landscapes and villages we cross are so cute and so beautiful, that I start fantasising how it would be like living in each of them.
While we drink coffee and enjoy the view, we plan all the renovations and projects we would realize in the buildings in front of us.
Look at those arches! When did we stop putting so much love and dedication into the architecture we built?
A few days of cycling, eating ice cream, complaining about heat and admiration for our surroundings pass.
Every day contains a mission I thought I wouldn’t be able to complete and a reward I didn’t think could be real.
After a short night in a hazelnut field, woken up many times by humans making noises, because it was the weekend and we slept close to a village, our plan of chilling the next day got cancelled by the path that should lead us to a nice river beach, but it was completely overgrown.
What do you do if one plan doesn’t work out? You just keep cycling. That’s what we did, on the main road, traffic and heat in abundance. Until we see a sign exiting the road towards a village. We take it and it goes up. Because the village is on a hill, didn’t know that.
There we pass the middle of the day in a lovely bar, drinking coffee chatting with the barman.
Later we keep going towards the next town, up and down I don’t know how many hills.
It will be my favourite town ever, we reach. Arches and ice cream and I am happy. The effort was worth it.
But we keep going “just a bit” because camping next to towns isn’t my favourite.
Stopping at the supermarket to get some fresh beers, luckily. At that stage I already thought I deserved the beer, and that I would be able to enjoy it very soon.
Didn't happen.
There is a path we think would lead us a bit away from the road. Find some quiet spot just around the corner.
Assumptions that lead us into scratching thorn bushes, stony downhill paths leading to a farm with barking dogs. Turning around, when you already thought you couldn’t take it anymore. Pushing the bikes up. Seeing that we took the wrong turn.
The right turn goes up even more. Why?
At that stage I am not even pushing my bike anymore, it rather feels like lifting it. That’s how steep it is.
I didn’t know I could sweat that much. I also didn’t know I would have the strength to keep going and pushing. But I do.
At the top awaits us, the perfect spot. Sunset and a view over the town and all the surrounding hills. This is the most deserved beer of my life I have ever drunk!
So, what’s the most you ever earned your evening beer? Or when and how did we stop putting love and art into the architecture we built?
Thank you all for stopping by, I appreciate it a lot! Have a lovely day:)
All photos and words are mine, taken and written by me, while cycling through Italy in the past weeks.