Almost a year and a half after I left my bicycle in Istanbul and returned home, on March 29 I flew back to Turkey, aiming to close the circle that I had started far back in June 2016 …... Read More
ISTANBUL and BACK
What happens when a long dreamed, awaited and imagined journey … becomes reality?
First of all, you try to live it to the fullest – and for as long as you can – collecting experiences, places and meetings, which one day will become your memories of the Silk Road. A baggage of indelible – and incredible – memories, which you would never think you could be able to create.
Then you leave your bicycle somewhere.
Because even if you want to believe that by now everything is all over … you actually know that nothing will ever end.
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8 December, Istanbul ◀ Day 437 🇬🇪 – 🇹🇷 ▶ Turkey’s first welcome, with a chaotic and tedious border crossing in the middle of pushes, crying children and a heavy storm, was not absolutely the best. Probably it wanted to make me pay somehow my decision to cut it all – at this stage – with a long bus ride from Batumi, with no stop whatsoever in between.... Read More
GEORGIA: Caucasian chronicles (Part 2 – 26 November / 7 December)
If – after China, Central Asia and Iran – Armenia had suddenly cleared the table, Georgia was about to overturn it completely.
The charms of Tbilisi, the history of Uplistsikhe and Gori, the magical views of Mtskheta and the snowy peaks of Kazbegi; few – cold – days, yet one of the purest and most enduring gems of my entire journey.
And then a race to the shores of the Black Sea, before the last, long ride to the borders of Europe.
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26 November, Armenia – Georgia border ◀ Day 425 🇦🇲 – 🇬🇪 ▶ History, culture, traditions, food, mountains, lakes, monasteries, people: ten days in Armenia left me breathless. In all senses. For the cold especially. Caucasian frost started seriously to show its teeth. Someone told me that Georgia, with its slightly mild temperatures and famous wine, is able to offer more various choices. And warm ones. So here is the thirty-first frontier of this journey. With woolen socks wrapped around my crumpled trousers and the look of a beaver at the Oktoberfest, I think I could have started better with it. But if it must come to wine, then I can say I’m more than ready!... Read More
ARMENIA: Caucasian chronicles (Part 1 – 16/25 November)
One month in Iran had plowed deeply in me; I wanted to stay there much longer, but the Caucasian winter was already preparing its grip. Armenia and Georgia – I confess – were two big question marks for me. Knowing nothing at all about them, the shock was immediate.
Ancient Persia was only a few kilometers away; however, already in Meghri, the change was impressive.
So Armenia presented itself like that, subverting everything.
A secret land, tender but sharp, proud and never tame, with a long, incredible and controversial history, where nature and monasteries recall everywhere tales and wounds which are still alive. A rough and difficult corner of the world, dug between boundaries of all kinds.
Nevertheless … of a boundless beauty.
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16 November, towards Meghri ◀ Day 415 🇮🇷 – 🇦🇲 ▶ “But you’re such a fake!” – a friend told me yesterday. “You almost never pedal! You’re the worst cycle-traveller I’ve ever met!”, he added laughing, mocking me a bit.... Read More
IRAN: in Wonderland. The real one. (16 October – 16 November)
The flight from Turkmenistan was not planned, but happened in record time.
Two months in Central Asian countries had given me so much, but Iran’s call was now out of control.
Thirty-three days, a birthday, a stolen phone, nights in trains and in deserts, minarets, teas, bazaars, spices and non-alcoholic beers; and then traditions, cultures, religions, citadels, gardens, parks, landscapes, flavors and stories of a land with a million-year history.
But most of all, the warm hospitality and the smiles of a unique … and simply unforgettable people.
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17 and 18 October, Mashhad ◀ Days 385 – 386 🇮🇷 ▶ After the discomfort experienced in less than 24 hours in Turkmenistan, Iran started with a boom. And what a boom guys!... Read More
TURKMENISTAN: a 23-hours transit!
A world record I’m not particularly proud of, coming out from bizarre circumstances and a sometimes too instinctive temper.
From Uzbekistan to Iran, by land and without motor vehicles, in 23 hours.
Turkmenistan crossing … in less than a day.
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15 and 16 October, from Farab to Sarakhs ◀ Days 383 e 384 🇺🇿 – 🇹🇲 – 🇮🇷 ▶ I anticipated it: I had no idea what would happen in Turkmenistan. However, I would never even think that I would have chosen to stay for less than 24 hours. What happened? Little, very little, surely too little. But enough to make me take a fast decision far away from all my initial “plans”.... Read More
UZBEKISTAN: the mythical cities on the Silk Road (23 September – 14 October)
Does Samarkand really exist? And the Registan?
How many differences can you find between the inhabitants of Tashkent, Khiva and Bukhara?
How do I get overland to Iran?
With Kazakhstan now behind me, it was time to find it all out.
In a long-imagined country, and finally in front of me: Uzbekistan.
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23 September, towards Tashkent ◀ Day 361 🇰🇿 – 🇺🇿 ▶ I did it. With a chain in my hand and a broken camera, but I did it. Let’s start the game now, Uzbekistan!... Read More
KAZAKHSTAN: Almaty, Shymkent and Turkestan (15 – 22 September)
After three surprising weeks in Kyrgyzstan, the journey took an unexpected detour.
The East and Uzbekistan were supposed to wait for eight more days; another huge country was about to catch my attention.
Too big to be totally revealed, Kazakhstan showed me only a few of its innumerable details: Almaty‘s richness, the splendor of its mountains, the desolation of Shymkent and the first blue domes of my Silk Road, in Turkistan.
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15 September, towards Almaty ◀ Day 353 🇰🇬 ▶ Kazakhstan, before leaving, was not in my plans. During the trip, however, I heard other travellers saying very good things about it. Mostly – always considering that it is one of the largest countries in the world (I believe the seventh) of the Southern part and Almaty. My Uzbek visa starts on Sunday, but I decided to wait a few more days to go in … and pass through Kazakhstan first.... Read More
KYRGYZSTAN: from South to North, wonderful nature all around (25 August – 14 September)
After crossing Irkeshtam Pass with a broken chain, I entered a country whose name I couldn’t even pronounce.
Completely unknown to me, a land which immediately struck me for the enormous differences with the neighboring great China: Cyrillic language, Soviet influences, nomadic peoples and a pristine amazing nature.
From Osh to Bishkek – camping in Arslanbob, in front of Issyk Kul lake and, with the nomads, among the magical silences of Song Kul lake – discovering one of the most amazing countries of my whole journey: KIRGHIZISTAN.
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25 and 26 August, Osh ◀ Days 332/333 🇰🇬 ▶ I reached Osh on a Thursday evening. With the help of an offline navigator and Ruzik’s guide I looked for Tes Guesthouse, a place Fernando advised on the same day (during the everlasting stage from Kashgar). I was tired and hungry.... Read More
CHINA: from Hong Kong to Kashgar, on the Silk Road (28 July – 24 August)
The FIRST PART of the journey, from Milan to Bangkok, was brought to end, after ten months, with a surprise.
The SECOND PART – an adventure which I imagined for years, along the ancient Silk Road – started in Hong Kong.
Almost a month, to cross the old path in Yangshuo, explore the Tibetan regions of Sichuan and Qinghai and reach the mythical cities of Turpan and Kashgar … before passing into Kyrgyzstan.
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RESTART There’s not much left to say. And I wouldn’t manage it, anyway.... Read More
Back Home with a Surprise – END OF PART ONE
9 months of solo travelling to decide to stop and go back home.
1 month to prepare a big joke, like April’s fool.
Here the last 4 days of my bizarre Milan – Bangkok, without airplanes and with a folding bicycle (with the final VIDEO).
And the end of FIRST PART …
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29 March, Bangkok (Thailand) | Day 301 🇹🇭 And also the day number 300 went by, my friends. 10 months, 20 Countries, that’s true. Who would have dared to say so, one year ago? Not me, for sure.... Read More
THAILAND (Second Part): Koh Tao and Khao Sok (10 – 28 March)
The last part of the journey and of ten months of solo travelling – before the unexpected return home – was devoted to two of the various pearls of Thailand: Koh Tao island, with its pristine beaches and stunning sunsets, and one of the most uncontaminated and breathtaking places I ever visited in my life, Khao Sok National Park.
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10 March, Koh Tao (Thailand) | Day 282 🇹🇭 “Very good Vieri! Are you happy now?! You and your damn decisions! I told you to go to other places, cause Thailand is big and rich … but nothing! You and this idea of coming to Koh Tao! You and your head! Always following those silly unnecessary sensations! Bravo, indeed! Happy to be in this Hell now?! Hey, look … I’m leaving! “... Read More
LAOS briefly again and the entrance to THAILAND (25 February – 9 March)
On February 24th, I definitively abandoned Vietnam and entered for the second time in Laos.
A brief stage into a country I had already lived in, to meet two friends and to reach – by land – the ultimate destination and goal of my trip.
An exotic and distant goal, thinking about the day I left.
One goal that, finally, on February 28th 2017, unraveled there in front of my eyes: Thailand.
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25 February, Pakse | Day 269 🇱🇦 I met Donatella and Gaetano for the first time, even if we are distant relatives, only a few days before I left for this long journey. It was one of my dear uncles who told me about them, their travels and adventures around the world they went on when I was just a kid.... Read More
VIETNAM (Second Part): Ninh Binh, Hanoi, Hoi An and Hue (11 – 24 February)
After Southern Vietnam, ending a full month in such a large and interesting country, here come the stories of the North: the nature of Ninh Binh, the chaos of Hanoi, the placid Hoi An (again) and a big stage on the bicycle towards Hue, the Kingdom’s ancient Capital.
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11 February, Ninh Binh (Vietnam) | Day 255 🇻🇳 14 hours on train and another one on my bicycle to go back to … Yangshuo!... Read More
VIETNAM (First Part): Saigon, Da Lat, the Southern Coast and Hoi An (24 January – 10 February)
So many questions I had that day, as I was quickly and abandoning Cambodia and preparing to cross the border with Vietnam.
How will the traffic in Ho Chi Minh be? And the mountains in Da Lat? Will it be worth pedaling to Nha Trang? What is the “TET” holiday? What about weather forecast for the Southern Coast? Will it really be as beautiful as they say, little Hoi An?
The answers would not be too late to arrive …
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24 January, Phnom Penh (Cambodia) – Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) | Day 237 🇰🇭 – 🇻🇳 Si sta(va) come d’autunno sugli alberi le foglie. Ed è subito Vietnam.... Read More
CAMBODIA: Phnom Penh and Koh Rong Island (11 – 23 January)
Closing the wonderful “Laos Chapter“, the descent continued to the land of the ancient Khmer Empire.
Perhaps because I was still too dazzled by Laos’s surprises, perhaps because the first impact – in a chaotic Phnom Penh and in the terrible recent history of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge – had been distressing or simply perhaps because I was starting to suffer the terrible heat of Southeast Asia (which I tried to soothe for a few days on the beautiful Koh Rong island) … but, unfortunately, Cambodia didn’t know how to give me what I was looking for and I was not able to find what I needed at that time of the journey.
Only 13 days, and then I left for Vietnam.
Primising myself, however, that one day … I would be back.
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11 January, Don Det (Laos) – Phnom Penh (Cambodia) | Day 224 🇱🇦 ➡ With almost 600 km on my bicycle – between the mountains of the North, Luang Prabang, Phonsavan and Vientiane surroundings, the plateau near Pakse and the long, arid roads close to the Mekong in the South of the country – Laos becomes officially, and with no dispute, the country in which I pedaled the most, since the day I left.... Read More
LAOS (Second Part): Tad Lo, Champasak, the Mekong and Don Det Island (1 – 10 January)
If, regarding the month I spent in Laos, the first part had been surprising, the second one … well … would have been even more.
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1 January, Tad Lo (Laos) | Day 214 🇱🇦 The 1st of January, for me, has always meant only one thing. Another one of those habits I have unconsciously learned from my father and grandfather, and that every year I’m waiting almost with trepidation. 13 o’clock (or perhaps 14), Rai 1 (Italian Channel): New Year’s Concert.... Read More
LAOS (First Part): the North, Luang Prabang, Phonsavan and Vientiane (15 – 31 December)
After two months in China, Southeast Asia finally arrived.
Leaving behind me one of the world’s largest Nations, once I came to Boten border I thought that the land I was facing would be short, simple, and far from being surprising.
Well, never before I had been so wrong.
On December 15th, I set foot for the first time in a country I didn’t know anything about and that would have been, for a month, day after day, nothing but astonishing: Laos.
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15 December, China- Laos border | Day 197 🇨🇳 – 🇱🇦 After all the troubles to enter Russia, Mongolia and China, here everything went very smooth and fast. At Boten border control, you show up, fill out a form, pay 35$ and yes, after 5 minutes you have a visa for 30 days.... Read More
CHINA – YUNNAN II: Dali Lake and Xishuangbanna (9 – 14 December)
Relying from a day-dream, I realized that my Chinese Visa was about to expire.
The passage for Laos was still hundreds of miles away, and so, on December 9th, I left again.
Always in Yunnan, but southwards.
First towards the blue shores of Dali Lake, then towards the first palm trees and Siam huts in the land border called Xishuangbanna.
My Chinese days had come to the end, and I still remember the sensations of those moments: a great desire to explore new countries, the tiredness of those two difficult months in Zhong Guo (ancient name for China) and a bag of joy and gratitude for all the experiences I had the fortune to live and which I had to list, before going out, in order to be able to believe that I had really lived them.
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9 December, Dali (China) | Day 191 🇨🇳 After 4 nights there, I left Shaxi village. A village that was able to give me a lot – much more than I could expect – but it is now time to move on. I only have six days lefy on my visa and Laos is not around the corner.... Read More
CHINA – Shaxi: the Way to a Dream (8 December)
8 December, Shaxi (China) | Day 190 🇨🇳 I’m not used to write down the detailed history of my days (as I think it’s boring for me and for those who read me), but today I’ll make an exception. What will follow may seem coming out of my fantasy, but nothing is invented. A surreal day, between dreams and reality, which I’ll keep forever among my best memories. Of this journey, and of my life.... Read More