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Cycling Italy: North to South

December 21st, 2024 (edited) / Mahdy Karam

Intro:

I've always wanted to go to Italy. I think this started when I first started watching the Ferrari F1 team when I was kid. Seeing the red cars zip around made me wonder how and where they were designed and manufactured. I've also always been pretty good at cyclying, I think my convenient weight combined with my need for speed as a kid just led me to bikes. I couldn't race cars, so this was the next best thing.
Unfortuantely, this isn't anything like racing. I'm not going to be fast. I'm not going to be in a group. I'm not going to be on a track. I'm going to be alone, on a bike, in Italy. No phone, no GPS (I really wanted one but I can't guarantee that I'll always be able to charge it, plus, Sea of Thieves made me an expert in reading maps), and no idea what I'm doing.

This page is incomplete, I'll keep adding things when I research them. For the moment this is just a place to keep my thoughts and ideas. The following is just a basic FAQ about the trip.

What?

Yeah that's the same thing my parents said. I'm bike packing from the north of Italy to the south. I'm starting in Milan, and ending in Sicily.

When?

Early summer of 2024 as my senior trip.

Why?

I've always wanted to go to Italy, I like to cycle. So this is a two birds one stone type thing.

How?

With a bike.
My current bike won't work for this, so I'm thinking of getting this one. I don't want a di2 groupset because this is a 2k km trip, and most di2 charges last like 700 km. If you have a better bike suggestion, please do tell.
I also plan on not taking my phone. So I'm bringing a map(s) and definitely a camera. I want to be able to disconnect from the world for a bit.

Food: I'm thinking of bringing a small stove and some camping food, but I'll probably also buy some food as I go along. There's a ton of small villages along the way, so I'm not too worried about that.

Sleeping:
I'm bringing a tent as I may not get to a town in time every day.

Directions:
I'm taking a bike computer and loading it with my GPX from the FATMAP route above. I'll also have a paper map just in case. I will say I do know bike computers don't last the entire length of this trip, so I'm not sure what I'll do about that. Maybe charge when I stop in cities? But that isn't consistent.

Communication:
I speak Italian, so I'm not too worried about speaking to the locals.

More details to come.

Where

Italy. 1,745 km (1,089 miles) of distance and 9,993 meters (32785.43 feet) in elevation. This may kill me. Here's the route: