Prologue

21 May 2026

I’ve never written a prologue before setting off on a trip, but this time it was needed.

What the Tuscany Trail is

It’s called “The biggest bikepacking event in the world,” maybe with a touch of exaggeration, but objectively it brings almost 7,000 people from all over the world to ride the Tuscan hills and coast. “Unsupported” format (which means “I give you the GPX track and the base camps, the rest is up to you”) but with an extraordinary ecosystem of accommodations, refreshment stops, and services that activates every year for the occasion. I’d wanted to do it for a long time, and I picked the period of my life when I’m less fit and more worn out than I’ve ever been. But I have a new bike and above all I am very motivated.

With a light heart

Tonight me, Vincenzo (with whom I’ve already done the Dolomites and the Po Delta) and Fabrizio, with whom I’m traveling for the first time, are in Campiglia Marittima, from where tomorrow morning we’ll set off on the first stage. And this time, describing the emotions will be very different.

I don’t have the legs, and maybe not even the breath. But my heart has taken a long journey, and discovered new ways of feeling and, above all, of expressing itself. Tomorrow and in the coming days I’ll wear myself out, I’ll do — we’ll do — absurd and comical things, as on all my trips, but I’ll draw strength and courage directly from the love of, and for, those who are deeply part of my life.

The little yellow car

With me I have a little yellow car. I asked my son (now almost 4 years old) to pick one to bring me on this trip. I really liked the idea of one of his little cars touring Tuscany together with me and my bike: a way to be together even at a distance, creating lots of stories to tell, like Amélie’s garden gnome.