No job, a bike & a moka pot: Cycling Italy | 4K Film

Off the back of my Cycling Scotland film, I’m going back to tell the story of my first cycling adventure around all 20 regions of Italy including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

Join me in travelling around this beautiful country, spending time with family, learning Italian, and finding the area to one day buy and renovate a cabin in the mountains.

The adventure spanned over 128 days and there’s a lot to get into, so this is just part 1 (of likely 4) and will cover the initial preparations and first 16 days in North-east Italy, starting in the Veneto region.

Cycling Scotland: https://youtu.be/CJXWCPuDUh4?si=HQ9XQIYUqTsogIy5

My Equipment: https://youtu.be/snrFivuw4xc?si=kLpCH2hRtJ61he9U

I’ll be creating a photobook from this adventure as well as Scotland, so any publishers please get in contact!

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. So, a little over a year ago now, I set off to cycle around all of Italy. And for over 4 months, I cycled around all 20 regions, including the Doommites, you know, the famous lakes to the coast as well, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Now, you may have seen my Cycling Scotland video, which actually took place after this. Cycling Italy was my first adventure. You know, just me and the bike, no obligations, just complete freedom to travel around and explore wherever I wanted to go. It was amazing. So when I decided to do this, I’d been living and working in London for around 5 years at this point. It was the end of 2023 coming into 2024. And you know, things were steady, but you know, I didn’t have a passion for what I was doing. And the main thing I hated was just knowing where I would be every day. And that just made life just feel the same. you know, every week would just continue and just turn into the same thing over and over again. And, you know, it became surprisingly easy just to keep going, you know, just to keep doing the same things over and over again. The hard thing to do in a situation like that is just to actually stop and just think, what do I actually want to do? And then coming up with an idea is hard enough, but then you actually have to do it as well. So, I just started writing things down of, you know, the things I enjoyed to do, stuff I wanted to do. And I’ve done this many times before to no avail. But this time, you know, luckily things just started to fall into place. So, I started to do a lot more research and I kind of planned all the equipment that I’d need and I slowly started to buy it, you know, a bit reluctantly cuz this stuff isn’t cheap. But it’s kind of like the sunk cost fallacy. If you start spending more in something, you feel like you’re devoted to it in a way. And the more stuff I’d buy, the closer I’d actually be to doing it. So, even though I had a bike that I’d used to commute to work, it was an RC 100 Tran from Dathlon and you know, it’s a good bike. It’s a very good kind of value starter bike, but I just didn’t have the faith in it to bring me around all of Italy. And plans to do Scotland were coming up as well. So, I just didn’t have the faith in the bike to bring me around both of those countries. So, I decided to buy a new one and I went for a Cannondale Topstone 3, which, you know, isn’t the best bike for the job, but it was decent all round and I wasn’t going to be spending forever researching and just never getting around to it. I wanted to actually get going. So, there’s quite a few setups you can do with something like this. You know, you can go very slim line and have a good time, you know, with low weight, or you can go for kind of like a big touring setup where you got paniers everywhere and just carry so much equipment. I went a bit more towards, you know, this kind of touring setup, the big panas. Not completely, but I just kind of figured, you know, I had this full list of stuff that I thought I’d use, you know, I’d use all of it, and I wanted to be able to fit on the bike. You know, it’s my first time doing it, and I haven’t really figured out what I might not need. So, I just figured, you know, this would be the best way to go. So, I didn’t put a route together because I was kind of just craving that freedom, you know, from knowing where I’d be every day. I just wanted to completely shift to the other side of the spectrum and just be able to go wherever I wanted and kind of not know what was in front of me. I wanted to discover as, you know, I cycled on. But that being said, as a minimum, I set myself the goal of covering all 20 regions of Italy. Otherwise, I could get a bit lost and just, you know, just sit around more than I needed to. So, my mom was already over there and I joined her and the rest of our relatives and we spent a couple days catching up together. And one of those days we went to a place called Trabiso. It’s a city in the Venetto region and is probably one of my favorite cities in Italy. It’s got these kind of fortress-like walls surrounded by a moat and then inside, you know, it’s cobbled streets with canals and small bridges crossing them. And it just has that old town Italy feel. And it’s not too busy. It’s got just enough going on to just sit in a cafe and just kind of watch the world go by. We’ve done it. We’re here in Italy. I hope you can see my head in this cuz it was cut out from the last one. But yeah, I’ve got all the stuff. The bike is here in one piece and I got all my gear and it all fits on the bike. It’s very heavy, but you know, it does the job. It’s going to be awesome. Can’t wait. Let’s go. So at the start of such a big journey like this, you kind of really have to find balance early on in terms of, you know, exerting yourself and going full pelt. You know, I just left my job. You know, it was pretty stable, a steady life to do something completely new. You know, travel by bike and then record and film everything. And I felt like I had something to prove. you know, I I felt like I had to get like, you know, 1,000 km done quite quickly, camp 10 nights and be, you know, proficient in camping and all that stuff. And I just wanted to like shoot out the gates, but I just knew if I did that, I’d probably be injured and then might need to stop or take, you know, a couple weeks rest and that kind of stuff. So, it is important and luckily I did do that otherwise I may have been delaying the star by another couple weeks. So I started in a very small town called Kofosco in the Vento region and made it to Suzagana. And at that point there I kind of merged into this cycling tour that was going on. It was called Procco cycling, an event that they hold there where you basically cycle through the hills of Procco, Leolina de Proco. And it ends at this town called Valdo Biad. And I just basically tank along. You know, there was already cyclists at all kind of abilities. Some very fast and then just some kind of going quite slow. We’re just taking a little pit stop here. I say we or I guess me and the bike. I didn’t expect to follow these guys so far. I guess I knew where they were going. The procco hills. I think we’re almost there. The guys said 4 km about half a kilometer back. So, shouldn’t be too far. And I just saw the guys crawling up the hill there. So, I think it’s a long way that way. And then we have to come back up over there. Yeah, beautiful views up here though. >> It was a nice dynamic. It was a very sunny day and you know the perfect place to get my first flat. This was the first flat of the bike so I just changed that over. Taking the chance as well to have a bit of food. And I wasn’t far from the finish. I made up the hill into Valdi Adne. And you know, Procco was everywhere. People were having wine. You could just hear the bottles clanking into the bins and just boxes everywhere. Unfortunately, they removed the podiums when I got there. I was obviously too slow and I just wanted to get something to eat to be honest cuz I had that peanut butter wrap and that was about it with some like chocolate bars and stuff and this was kind of my introduction to how restaurants worked in Italy and most of the time they don’t they don’t work they’re not open for their main menu and it’s only really during peak hours which makes sense you know these people have to run a business and not go bankrupt but it is kind of annoying you know 300 p.m. On a Sunday, I can’t get a pizza. I can’t get any pasta. I basically had to settle for some like mortadella and bread, which I kind of chewed and my mouth got really sore. You know, I was cramping up. And I just went to camp at the spot that I found on this app called Wild Hood. And it was by the River Pave and I just headed over there. So, it is night one, the first day. The cycle went really well and yeah, I’m kind of happy with how it went. An unfortunate thing is the stove didn’t work. I bought an attachment on um Amazon and then I bought the gas canister when I was here and I didn’t actually check if they were compatible, but unfortunately they don’t screw in. So, I’m not going to be having a risotto. Um, asparagi asparagi, whatever. I’m not going to be having that lovely risotto tonight. So, instead going for the old faithful uh tortilla wrap and peanut butter, which would be nice. But yeah, this this is awesome. First day out here on my own. And oh, what the hell is that? I’m I’m just so kind of like grateful that I can do this. And it may not seem appealing to some like just camping kind of like as and when. Um but I think it’s pretty awesome especially if I’m if I’m able to do the entire country which I’m I’m hopeful for. This is my first time camping alone and probably my third time camping. I was very anxious while camping at the beginning, but it is something quickly you become more comfortable with. You know, you’re in like a foreign area. You don’t really understand the surroundings. You know, you’re basically just pulling up wherever you finished and just, you know, sleeping in a forest in a field. And it can be quite, you know, unnerving, but it became quite enjoyable quite quickly to be honest. you know, being alone in nature, seeing the stars to a degree that you wouldn’t in the city, and just kind of being safe and warm in your tent. It’s nice. You know, make sure you buy a waterproof tent, otherwise you’ll be having a terrible time. This was a better place to camp, I believe. The ground was a lot softer, you know, a bit more clay as opposed to like the silt of the river. And there was a lot of moisture when I was by the river, just too much. It just soaked kind of like the um inner lining in the fly on the inside. There’s a lot of condensation. Yeah. I mean, not too much to report. The uh noise of the road was quite was quite big, but it just faded into the background. Kind of like the noise of the river. Kind of like white noise. Yesterday was tough and had to roll out my legs with um a cricket ball I bought. Uh but yeah, I feel a bit better now moving around in the morning, less stiff, but I feel like I could seize up if I don’t eat and drink correctly. But that’s all the time, I guess. I’ll pick it up when uh when I’m down the line and uh let’s see how we get on. So I went along the villages next to La Pri Alps and the hills of PCO passing through some lovely places with these murals. So, I wasn’t going to be camping every day of this trip. You know, I had to kind of go in a hotel every now and then just to kind of recover, charge my stuff, have a shower, and all that kind of, you know, shebang. And I started heading east towards Fui Vanessia Julia, which was the most eastern region in the north. And it was day four when the rain started chucking it down. So I decided this, you know, was the best opportunity to get a room. And you know, it’s funny. I wasn’t even that far away from my relative’s house. You know, I kind of did a little circle and went back on myself. So, I was like an hour and a half, two hours away. But I kind of felt it would be a little defeat to go back this early. you know, I hadn’t proven myself yet. So, I booked a hotel room and I was a bit annoyed with that decision, you know, spending money when I didn’t need to, but I think it was the right choice just to kind of keep me going and, you know, save off those little defeats and just kind of motivate me to get the journey done. So, I stayed for two nights. It just rained the entire time. And I remember this day very well. It was day six and I got on all my waterproof gear and basically just set off in the rain. And I was going down east. There was like this main road I was on and these barriers started coming up on the side. So I was pretty much closed into this road and there was two roads either side of that one. So it was quite busy. You know, big lurries were going by. Mist was coming up into my face. And the bike just suddenly started getting very wobbly and then it just cranked to a halt and I was just like, “Oh no, what is this?” I got off and you know I had a flat on the back which you know I kind of just accepted but it didn’t really make sense why the bike stopped you know why would it just suddenly grind to a hole and I was taking all my bags off cuz I had to like put them over the barrier make four or five trips to get them over the road to safety and it was during that that I found that a strap that I had tied around my back paner to like secure my sleeping mat and stuff basically got caught in the wheel and during that it ripped off half of the handle of one of my pantiers and basically yanked that hook off and the whole bike just stopped. It was one of those moments when you’re just like why why me kind of thing and it just wasn’t a good day. So I just wanted to head somewhere dry and basically get some food down me and figure out a solution. I ended up ordering the new part back to my family’s house. So, I knew I’d have to, you know, make a round trip and go back there. But the pan could still hold on with one hook. You know, I I reckon it could survive these couple of days. So, I continued on. I went to Aqua first, which is like this ancient Roman town on the Adriatic Sea. Used to be quite a major city, but now it’s, you know, mostly ruins. Quite beautiful to look around. Or join me for say Um, and then I made it to Palanova, which is a very uniquely shaped city. From the top, you can see it has nine sides. Pretty much looks like a pizza. And um, I figured, you know, might as well go for a pizza if the restaurant’s open. And I had a pretty nice one. I think it was called. It was named after the region and I just enjoyed that. I continued on heading east and I made it pretty close to the Slovenian border and I set up camp in this kind of foresty area and I stumbled upon this hunting cabin and I went up there just to, you know, cook my food and just see what it was about. It was quite cool, covered in like leaf nets and stuff. And I hear this rustling behind me and I just, you know, turn around and there was this hunter there with this rifle over his shoulder. And I was just kind of, you know, frozen for a second. And I was just like, “Oh, do you want to do you want to join me?” And I was just like, you know, I’m I’m not hunting, so you know, you can have this place. And he’s like, “No, no, no. I’ll go find something else.” And I turned around. He pretty much like disappeared in seconds. I couldn’t hear him anymore. And it made me a bit nervous, you know, camping again that, you know, hunters were around shooting and, you know, what if a bullet hit my tent? And I think it was these kind of like anxious thoughts that basically gave me a little bit of a nightmare in the morning. I was lying there in the tent and you know, it was that kind of dream when you kind of know you’re awake, but you’re also dreaming and your eyes are closed, but it feels like they’re open. And I was in the foyer of the tent, you know, just looking out down the tree line. And I just see this like black shaded figure with like a hat on and like an overcoat, full trench coat. And I looked at it for a few seconds and then it just kind of like ethereally disappeared into the into the treeine. And I woke up and it’s kind of it’s it’s strange how like dreams can affect your mood. You know, if you have like an uncertain dream, it can put you in a bad mood. And you know, I packed up my camp and you know, it was a pretty cold morning. My toes were numb. Just wasn’t having a good time, but you know, at least it wasn’t raining. And I just continued on. And I came up to these blue green emerald waters far below with a bridge crossing over the top into this village. And the river was just lined with these colored houses. It just looked absolutely spectacular. I wasn’t expecting it. And it just put me in a better mood instantly. This place was called Chividal Delui. I had no idea it existed and you know I just went in there, had a coffee, got some pizza for the road because this day I had planned to basically make it all the way back to my family’s house and that was going to be over 100 km probably more as well. So unfortunately I couldn’t really spend as much time there as I wanted even though you know it was up to me. I decided to leave and I headed to Udin which was the capital city of the region. That was the only stop I wanted to make. And you know, big cities are a bit of a pain on the bike. You know, it’s not really that fun traveling into them because it just gets very hectic, very residential, super busy, and there’s just not much to see. So, as soon as I got into the city, you know, I was quite drained and I just went for a coffee instantly. And it was in there I met this guy who also had a camera and you know we just got to talking about you know getting into photography cuz he just bought it and he’s like I just don’t know what to shoot. And you know we we basically just came up with you know you basically just got to shoot everything until you can narrow it down and find something that you really enjoy. And after that, you know, I had to rush off because I’d figured out by that point I had like another 120 km to do. So I had to pretty much zoom on day nine and we’re doing I think like 120k today and it’s ridiculous. I’m going to get to Kosovos maybe 910 p.m. And yeah, didn’t even have a good sleep. Yeah, it was it was pretty tough uh covering that amount of distance. I ended up doing 143 km and my mindset pretty much brought me through that. My body was telling me to stop, but I just kind of like, like I said, I had that thing I had to prove to myself I had to keep going. And I got back to my relatives place at around 9:10 p.m. And it was it was very funny. It was very wholesome. My uh aunt and uncle, you know, basically had like a little celebration there, you know, with my name kind of in letters, >> some seats, and some procco. And uh yeah, it was just very nice. But it was very like preempted, you know, I’ve only done like eight days and I still have like months to go to cover the entire country. But you know, the little celebration was welcome. So, I changed over the spare part around two days in staying with my family again. And I stayed for another two nights just because the rain just kept coming. I didn’t expect it to rain this much in October, but you know, what can you do? So, the only thing I could do was basically wait for a dry day because there’s no point in setting off in the rain. It’s just miserable. And I finally got a dry day and I went on and I I thought, you know, eight days cycling, four days rest, my body would be primed, you know, to get going. However wrong I was, you know, my legs would just they felt like stones. They were just absolutely ridiculous. And this was a big problem because I wanted to go over the pre-alps, which were pretty considerable mountains to get over into the Alp region. So, I just had a pretty terrible time, but you know, the sun was out and I just had to enjoy it as best I could. And I finally made it to the top. Very sweaty, but at this point, you know, it was entering the evening. It was getting cold and I could just see the Alps in the distance. And it was just absolutely amazing being able to see them for the first time in like my adult age. I’d been here when I was a kid, but it was just different this time. Guys, we made it over the hill. The big hill. Look at that view. We’re over the pre-alps and these the actual Alps. Damn, it’s looking good. What a climb. A water climb. I hate going down fast because these brakes are not the best. So, a gradual way down would be nice for me, but yeah, it’s not going to be like that. Anyway, can’t believe we did it. Well, I can knackered. And I continued on. I made it to Baloon, which is a very nice city on a big hill. Be warned if you’re cycling. Very steep streets. I think we got the 11. It is day 14 and it is the 12th of October around 1:00 and we’re leaving Baloona and going to be heading to the Vant Dam and I went on further north and I passed the Viant Dam which actually the anniversary for the disaster was a couple days ago on the 9th of October. The vine diamond is a pretty sad story. Um, you know, I think it was 1963 basically where against the advice and guidance of, you know, geologists and researchers, they ended up building this big dam between two of the mountains and they basically predicted that there was going to be a big landslide at some point and that happened. And the village below was just totally wiped out by, you know, millions of gallons of water over topping the dam. Very sad story. You know, could have been avoided, but you know, there was just quite a lot of negligence there. And it’s important to remember these kind of events because, you know, if if you don’t remember mistakes, you know, you’re bound to repeat them. And at the time, I think they blamed, you know, natural causes even though it was, you know, completely predicted in a way. So, pretty mellow heading past there. And I just continued on north. And this was a big struggle of a day as well. I was heading through all these tunnels which were basically, you know, cut into the mountains. And tunnels are just no fun when you’re on the bike. you know, just the drum of traffic is it’s so loud and it just kind of like not only is it loud, but it kind of just affects your senses and you know, the further you have to go in a tunnel, the worse it is. More fumes, sometimes it’s dark and it’s just quite stressful. So, I had to go for about four or five and I pretty much took the first opportunity to get off this main road. And this brought me down a bit of a nostalgia trip which was absolutely lovely. I basically came upon this cafe which was appended to this ice rink which instantly brought back the memory. I I was like I’ve I’ve been here before when I was a kid and it was in the summer when it was a hockey rink and I remember falling over in there and like grazing my knee >> boy. But I basically just sat up in the cafe. It was nice and warm. I had a coffee and a sandwich and a bit of a pastry as well. And it was just kind of, you know, a nice kind of feeling after a tough day cycle. And my good luck continued. I just set off outside the cafe and I saw a sign for a cycle path that would pretty much bring me all the way through the Dolommites towards Cortina, which is my next destination. And that was just, you know, so lucky. It’s day 14 and we just did a camp down there in the woods um just off the path and there was a nice man uh cutting timber when I woke up and uh he was basically giving me some pointers of what to look for uh going down to Kina. Yeah, the camping is getting a bit smoother. Um, I set up the entire of last night in the dark. Well, you know, just approaching the dark. I think I got the tent up just before 8, but I didn’t use the headlamp at all. I had it there just in case I heard some strange sound in the woods, but it was fine. But yeah, for today we’re just going to head to Cortina, which is only about an hour away, I think, on this lovely cycle path. And then after that, we’re going to make our way to Bosano and hit the third region. So that’ll be three. But I’m just going to pack up my stuff and then we’re going to head on the road and get going. Let’s do it. So I started down the cycle path and the cycling had finally caught up to me. my knee. I think it was my left one. It was just completely ruined. Like whenever I put any pressure down on the pedal, the pain would just scream at me and I had to stop. So I had to only cycle with one leg and then follow through with my left. And I was just going very slowly, which you know was completely fine with me because I was in the Doomides, amazing views all around me on a cycle path, no cars going by. So I could just take it slow and just kind of, you know, take in the sides and I made it to Cortina, which very touristy place. It’s set to be, I think, the destination for the Winter Olympics 2026. And there was pretty much just tourists there. I like swear I didn’t see any locals. Most of the shops were closed. Um and I just had some pizza and some pigeons were a bit interested in there as well. So I fueled up with a coffee as well. I was pretty tired even though I barely covered any distance. And I set off north and camped just outside Cortina in the national park. And again, just pretty much zonked out. It was getting quite cold at this point, so I was getting, you know, nice and warm in my tent. It’s funny, you know, when you watch these kind of videos from other people’s perspectives, you know, like you watch my video or someone else is on their adventure, you kind of feel like a bit of comfort and a bit of hope. You know, I think it’s all to do with the fact that there’s structure there. You know, the the story is been and done. You know, it’s it’s happened. It’s certain and you can follow it all the way through. And those kind of feelings don’t really come with you on your own adventure because you’re basically in the thick of it. You know, you’re dealing with the situations, you’re exerting yourself on the bike, and you have to come up with the solutions to your problems. So, it’s a very different feeling on your own adventure. But I will tell you this, you know, there are these moments when especially like when you’re at rest or like you’re camping and it’s just unlike anything else and you won’t get it from watching a video. It’s just this feeling of like complete freedom, you know, just being out in the tent like in nature, no one around you, the stars above and just the sounds of kind of like nature doing its thing is really amazing. And that is why I’d recommend anyone to do an adventure like this. It makes all that kind of frustration, you know, uncertainty, it makes it all worth it. And yeah, you can really have a good time. But unfortunately, you know, those times do come to an end and there are some problems and sometimes some very big problems that you’ll have to face. Guys, the worst has happened. The derailer hanger has snapped and I was coming down over there and it just hit the bump and just snapped. And the worst part is is I had that on my list of stuff to get as a repair kit, but it was out out of stock everywhere I looked. Like everywhere. Ah, it’s so annoying. So annoying, dude. This part here is sheared off there. And there’s just nothing that can be done. Nothing. Just you.