Un sogno su due ruote / A dream on two wheels

13/02/2024

Memory of a summer bike packing in Catalunya.
Waiting for more to come!

1📸 .morata

13/03/2023

Since I've been a cyclist and cycle traveler, I feel I am discovering places in a total different way.

and me were thinking: How many people visiting Ibiza, passed through roads we cycled these days?

Can they smell blooming tree? Feel the warm sun? Hear the birds singing? Or being surprised when we discover a breathtaking view after a steep climb?

11/03/2023

How lucky I am ☀️

24/02/2023

Am I brave?

Around one month ago, I was in Milan giving a talk at , the most popular bike café in Milan with connected from US!
The talk was about Women Torino-Nice.
Many people attended the event, I was nervous and excited at same time.

A few people told me: “Congrats for being so brave. “
First reaction in my mind was: “Brave? Look at my face! I am so anxious and worried.”

How it’s easy to forget the challenges we won. How it's easy to forget the effort we put to catch our dreams, overwhelmed by daily life.

Yes, I have being brave. I leaved the certainly for the uncertainty, to build a life shaped with my dreams.
Would you do this?

I strongly believe that every one could do it. The little shy and worried Angela can confirm. 😀

Recently someone told me these words:
If people around you are thinking you are crazy, probably you are taking the best choice of your life ;-)

02/02/2023

31/01/2023

It's been 3 years since my first  travel speech, I was telling the story of "My first time traveling alone: stories of a solo journey to the other side of the world". 

A great emotion and an important challenge to speak in front of so many people. I had always been super shy, but that journey deeply changed me and I wanted to share it. 

I also dreamed of giving a speech at , the most famous Bike Café in Milan. 
A few months ago, Barbara saw me in a Komoot video about Women Rallies (like the Turin-Nice one) and invited me to tell my experience, together with . 
And now here we are, me talking about , with Lael (connected online), in Upcycle, in front of a lot of people.
Looks almost unbelievable for me!!

It's really true that you shouldn't stop believing in your dreams, not even the smallest ones.
It is really true that saying yes to life is the most important key to achieving them. 🙏🏻

See you tomorrow at 19.30 from Upcycle or online on the IG profile ( )

I hope I won't be too nervous!!  ( I am still shy!!!)
😃

Thanks for the nice 📸

The other picture were about my first presentation at ❤️❤️❤️

29/11/2022

Last few weeks have been like a roller coaster, trips and many other things happening. I even I also fell off my bike and now I have well hidden scar under my chin, lucky me!!

This photo is from few days ago, my first time , doing one of my worst times :-)

But it doesn't matter, this photo represents the balance for me.
Me, my passion and the city where I chose to live 💛

Thanks for this wonderful photo
and .cg for organising this event!

10/10/2022

I can't believe that 3 weeks have already passed since Turin-Nice Rally, by far the hardest and most incredible journey I've ever done.

Many things have happened in recent weeks, but above all, the attempt to get back into balance after a summer of travel, new bikes, landscapes, emotions.

A balance that seems represented in this photo, but which actually hides an infinite mix of emotions.
This photo was few moments before Rally started. I was with about 50 unknown girls from all over the world.

I absolutely didn't know what to expect. If I I would have pedaled in company or alone, if I could overcome my inner limits and break my shyness, and the physical limits, to be able to complete this challenge.

I only knew that I would have pedaled among my beloved mountains, the ones that had welcomed me on my first solo trip 4 years earlier and that this time they would have shown me other, harder slopes, other terrains, other fatigue. I knew I was with my dream bike, even though we had yet to get to know each other.

And so, yes, all of this, it is inside this photo.

Let's see if with this search for balance, I will return to write about my emotions and adventures? :-)

Thanks for 📸
and , and for make this event so special.

17/09/2022

Few years ago I discovered Torino-Nice Rally.
I was looking at pictures of this incredible road crossing mountains between France and Italy, thinking if one day I would have the chance to ride there.

Since july I didn’t have the right bicycle, so I decided to catch this opportunity and applied for one of the 50 places available for the women edition.
I was selected but for my physical conditions I decided to join last minute.

Being awake until 4am the day before leaving to prepare the bike with new frame bags.
And then started the race with other unknown 50 women, as the only italian, full of fears and anxieties.

Without knowing when I would have sleep and eat.
Riding over 620km and 17400m elevation, half gravel in 1 week on the most beautiful and hard roads in the Alps.

Thanks to those who believed in me, even when I doubt it myself.
And to all the strong and inspiring women I shared the road with.

Thank you to and that make all this possible!

22/08/2022

Looks like also this trip is ending.

It is so strange to wake up and not riding. I just have to wait the bus back to Barcelona.

How many landscapes, emotions, difficulties and joys. I feel like I have been away for one months.

And can I still remember how I feeling 10 days ago?

The bicycle teaches what effort is, what means going up and down - not only on mountains, but in fortunes and sorrows - it teaches how to live. Cycling is a long travel searching for your true self.

Ivan Basso

15/08/2022

Day 1-2 - From Bilbao to…

About limits.

Last weeks in preparation of my trip, I tried to ride more.
I wanted to train, to be in better shape, but it was a failure.
Crisis of fatigue, overtraining, I got sick.
And then I left.

Now that I'm traveling, I try to ride like last year.
But I can’t. I would like to go faster, make less effort. But no, I can't.
Not even the new bike helps. Everything seems more challenging. But challenging compared to what?

Maybe I just have to get used, or maybe this time I just have to recognize my limits, and accept them. It is like this, this year.

After all, it is not always necessary to overcome ourselves. Sometimes we may "just" enjoy the ride. Isn’t it?

And what about this?
Well Cantabria surprises me, I've never seen mountains like this before. So immense and green, embraced by the clouds.

Now a day off, and tomorrow again on the road.

And you, do you struggle against your limits? Or try to accept them?

28/07/2022

La bici più bella del mondo ❤️
[🇬🇧1st comment]

Eh si, dopo mesi di attesa è arrivata. Ed è così bella che.... quasi non ci credo.

Ripenso alle bici che mi hanno accompagnato in questi anni nelle più disparate avventure.
Tutte bici di seconda mano, e non proprio performanti, ma…

C'è la mia Cinelli, la prima, insieme siamo andate persino in Nuova Zelanda; con lei ho fatto i primi viaggi ho iniziato a fare le prime salite.

Poi c'è la Giant, la mia prima bici da corsa. Con lei ho iniziato a divertirmi davvero e innamorarmi della bici. Insieme abbiamo fatto il mio primo viaggio in solitaria, la traversata delle Alpi, e poi i Pirenei Coast to Coast; grazie a lei ho conosciuto tantissimi nuovi amici e un po' di più anche me stessa. Questa bici da corsa, un po' fuori moda, mi ha insegnato la tenacia, la perseveranza, la resilienza. Mi ha insegnato che posso fare tutto e superare i miei limiti, contro ogni aspettativa, mia e degli altri.

Poi c'è la Felt, acquistata in Australia per 130€. Si, nel 2018, durante un periodo sabbatico, dal sud est asiatico volai in Australia. Lì comprai una bici. Insieme abbiamo pedalato da Adelaide a Sydney, l'avventura più incredibile che abbia mai vissuto.

E' ora c'è la più bella bici del mondo, disegnata per me, resistente, forte e versatile.
E anche se mi fa quasi strano che sia mia, credo proprio di meritarmela.

Che cosa mi insegnerai tu? Dove andremo insieme?

Grazie a che ha seguito fin dall'inizio e con molta pazienza il progetto di questa bici, ascoltando tutte le mie necessità (e nonostante la mia incompetenza tecnica)
Grazie ad per i primi bellissimi scatti.

09/06/2022

A month ago I was in Menorca, and now I am in Saint Véran, the highest village in Europe.
And the emotions are the same. 

From sea to mountains, I fall in love with opposites in the same way. Or maybe they are not so opposite?
There is a thread that unites these two extremes of nature. 

I write a quote from a film I watched in these lonely nights, in this beautiful chalet.
"I am French, Spanish, English, Danish. I am not one, but a multitude. I am like europe. I am all of this. I am chaos."

Like a road bike, in a gravel path :-)

And it is magnific like this.

09/06/2022

A month ago I was in Menorca, and now I am in Saint Véran, the highest village in Europe.
And the emotions are the same. 

From sea to mountains, I fall in love with opposites in the same way.

Or maybe they are not so opposite? There is a thread that unites these two extremes of nature. 

I write a quote from a film I watched in these lonely nights, in this beautiful chalet.

"I am French, Spanish, English, Danish. I am not one, but a multitude. I am like europe. I am all of this. I am chaos."

Like a road bike, in a gravel path :-)

And it is magnific like this.

17/05/2022

📣 So proud to announce a new collaboration with and .it

When I was asked to think of a new design about gravel bike, bike packing, trails, I was so excited, but at same time anxious not to live up to this project, and I procrastinated many times, afraid of the white sheet. 

But as I learnt, as soon as we start something we are worried about, things take their natural shape, and everything goes on the right way.

Italy: you can buy this t-shirt on bikecreative.it

Outside Italy: direct message me.

14/03/2022

🇮🇹"Non ti manca la bici?"
Me l'avete chiesto in molti in queste settimane.

Quando sai che non potrai fare una cosa per diverso tempo puoi fare 2 scelte: maledire ogni giorno quella stupida caduta e soffrire per tutto quello che ti manca.
Oppure... accettare che così è la vita, che può capitare, che uno stop non può che farti bene, che ci sono molte altre cose da fare, e che per fortuna, in teoria, è temporaneo.

Ed ho scelto la seconda opzione. più o meno.
Fin quando non ho iniziato a pensare che la bici è mio punto fermo, la mia valvola di sfogo, la mia "uscita di sicurezza", la mia finestra sul mondo.
La bici, che la usi quando sei felice, perchè ti arricchisce la vita, e quando sei triste, perchè sa riportarti a galla in pochi istanti.

"E allora ti manca?"
Sì, infinitamente. E con consapevolezza.
E gratitudine.

Sarà che ho fatto molti progressi da quando non riuscivo nemmeno ad aprire una scatoletta di tonno. E anche poter scrivere questo post è un buon segno.
Forse sono a buon punto.
Ed quasi come essere al 1 gennaio. Piena di buoni propositi :-)



[english in the 1st comment]

28/01/2022

DAY 3 - Find the balance

We wake up at 7.30. We are on private property, so it is better to leave early.
But at 7.45 my second fear comes true: a car parks in front of our tree.
"Lorena !! What do we do?!"
An elderly man gets out. There is fog and he certainly hasn't seen us.
We decide to introduce ourselves. "Hola!"
He is surprised, suspicious and curious. "But how did you get here?" eh.. we explain and apologize infinitely.

"Don't worry, do you need something?" and then "Sois muy valientes" tells while leaving.

We hug and laugh. I am happy to have lived this experience, too. I repeat to myself: We suffer much more for our imagination than for reality.

This episode makes us closer: two complete strangers, traveling for 48 hours, in search of balance.
I am struggling with my limits: I had designed a tailor-made track for me, but not for Lorena, not for the two of us. Reluctantly I have to cut a lot of km.

Lorena tells me that Virginia will join us in the evening. We tell her a meeting point, but to get there we have to pedal more than usual.

We talk while riding, and so it comes naturally to me to go slower.

We take a break and two cyclists stop to ask us some questions. "Do you want an Asiatico?" "Huh?"
Asiatico is a super local specialty of that area of Murcia: a café with leche and liqueur.
Sitting around a table, we speak about our lives. They dream of a trip like ours. And they don't believe we have known each other for only 2 days.
"Zero problems" it’s written on my sugar packet.
“Thank you to share with us your experience” they say.

It is like summer, the landscape reminds me of Sicily in august. And everything is so perfect.

17/01/2022

DAY 2 | We suffer more in imagination than in reality. (Seneca)

While traveling, not only landscapes full fill my heart; also people kindness.
When we wake up on the beach, the family with the camper offers us breakfast. We are so grateful for their generosity, but when we say goodbye, they are the ones who say thanks to have crossed their path. "Sois muy valientes" they tell us. 

The day goes by quickly, we ride through fields and large invernaderos: huge greenhouses where mainly tomatoes are grown.

When sunset approaches we start looking for a place to sleep.
Wild camping for me is a mixture of charm and adrenaline. I love when nature is my home, but strangely it is in nature that I feel most insecure and vulnerable. I worry someone can come, something bad happens, and that animal can attack me. But usually, nothing happens. 

Not easy tonight to find a good camp spot, there are no woods, everything is very exposed. It gets darker and darker and we have to make up our minds. We see a path, with a chain.
"Here we go?" We hesitate a little. "Yes, we should"
We enter a dirt road up to a large carob tree, with the branches forming a dome. It will be our perfect hidden place: looks incredible, we will sleep inside a tree, wrapped in its branches!
But I fear two things about this night: that some animal will arrive, that the owner will arrive.

"Lorena! can you hear it?"

And here, the first thing is already reality: it is undoubtedly a wild pig.
I keep myself rational, and try to feel safe. I listen to every noise with curiosity and tremor. I am afraid and I cannot fall asleep. But at the same time it is exciting to feel so part of nature.

13/01/2022

DAY 1 | LIMITS ARE ONLY IN OUR MIND

I meet Lorena at the bus station in Vera (Almeria).
Our bikes are completely different. Mine is a racing bike, light, fast, with thin wheels. Her bike is quite heavy and fully charged. I am already afraid that I will have to change my travel habits.
I think back to the sentence that Didier had written to me "Alone you go faster, together you go farther".

I try to stay positive. But my bike is naturally faster and in a moment Lorena and I are at a distance.

I try to repress my Milanese soul: after so many solo journeys it is difficult to adapt to someone else's company!!

Breathe, relax, broaden your horizons, change your perspective. There is so much wealth in sharing with others.

We reach the sea and we have to go along a gravel road. And now it is I who is limiting Lorona. She could go anywhere with her bike. But me?
How many times have I heard this phrase: "You won't go there with your bike". Are you sure?
And every time, as I am quite stubborn, I try. And every time I succeed. If I had listened to the "limits" suggested by others or by my own mind, I would have missed out on a lot of adventures.

We are in a splendid natural park overlooking the sea. We look for a place to pitch our tents for the night and all the fears of traveling as a woman emerge.

Yes, in certain moments I envy men. We find a camper, it's a family and we ask if we can put the tent nearby.

We heat the water to take a shower just behind vegetation. I feel so wild and free. 

This night is magnificent. 
It is a magnificent night. The sky is full of stars, it is one of those skies that you can't see often. I listen to the sound of the sea. 
Everything is so beautiful that I would like to stay awake to keep feeling it.

It is a kind of magic.

10/01/2022

🇬🇧 7 DAYS, 7 ADVENTURES.

Imagine 3 girls, who met on Instagram a few days earlier.

3 different bikes, a road bike, a travel bike, a mtb.
3 personalities, 3 tents, 2 nationalities. 3 characters that melt, collide but at the end take the shape of each other.

An itinerary designed and completely modified day by day, started with 20 ° C and finished with 0 ° C.

And now imagine the journey.

A night bus to Almeria on January 1st, the day of good proposals.
At the arrival I am surrounded by fog. And I have no idea what it will be like. But it will all be imperfectly perfect.

We are used to imagining a world full of dangers and pitfalls.
But, one thing that this journey reminded to me, it is that when we open ourselves, when we abandon prejudices, everything finds its place, its solution.

Of this journey I keep in my heart the words that have been said to us most often: "Sois muy valientes" (you are very brave), and "Thank you for having crossed our path", which every time left me so amazed.
That's us who are grateful for all the generosity and kindness we have received.

Stay tuned, next days, new posts about this adventure!

🇮🇹in the first comment!

01/01/2022

2021 was an incredible roller coaster. Thanks above all to those who brought me some light in the dark moments, to those who left my life, to those who joined it.

My heart is full of emotions and indelible moments.

I wish for a 2022 full of new adventures!

26/12/2021

🇬🇧"We live in such a beautiful country," says the guy next to me while we are looking at the same panorama.
I nod. But I don't tell him that I left this beautiful country two years ago.
Almost freezing, I admire the colors, the lake, the stunning snowy Alps in front of me. It is all so beautiful.

How I missed all of this. Is it the distance make everything so special?

Italy, you are so beautiful, intense, controversial.
How hard it is to go away, how hard it is to stay.

Only those who dare to go a little further will discover how far they can go (Sergio Bambarén)

🇮🇹 "Viviamo proprio in un bel paese" dice il ragazzo accanto a me, mentre guardiamo lo stesso panorama.
Annuisco. Non gli dico che da questo bel paese me ne sono andata due anni fa.
Assopita dal freddo ammiro i colori, il lago, le Alpi innevate. E' tutto così bello e perfetto. Quanto mi mancava tutto questo, i miei luoghi del cuore. Sarà la lontananza a rendere tutto così speciale?
Italia, così bella, intensa, controversa. Quanto è difficile andare via, quanto è difficile restare.

Soltanto chi osa spingersi un po’ più in là scopre quanto può andare lontano.
(Sergio Bambarén)

16/12/2021

🇬🇧Be stronger than your excuses.
I did it. Where I was not expecting this.

Do you remember my small challenge? Swim in the sea in December, preparing myself to do this twice a week to get used to the cold?
Ehm... I didn't do this, never, for many reasons (or excuses??) like... bad weather, lack of time, wrong moments.. ehm... laziness and miedo! I never liked the cold.
So I was almost sadly sure I would have failed.

But...
Today: perfect day, perfect time, no wind, no waves, basically, no excuses.
And it was easier than I thought.

Sometimes we spend time and energy planning something, missing an opportunity by putting an idea in our mind.
But probably we are just taking time and finding excuses to hide our fears.

Don't overthink, happiness is just in front of you.

How many things learnt today from a quirky challenge 🤣

🇮🇹nel primo commento

15/12/2021

[🇬🇧1st comment]

Una delle mie più grandi passioni è il disegno. Disegnare era la cosa che più assiduamente facevo da bambina. Timidissima, insicura, era una delle cose che meglio mi riusciva. Ricordo ancora all'esame di terza media, una maestra mi fece una domanda e presa dall'agitazione rimasi in silenzio. Rispose per me la maestra di disegno: Angela riesce a esprimersi meglio con le immagini.
Per svariati motivi abbandonai il disegno, scelsi percorsi di studi diversi: lingue, economia, marketing, comunicazione. Mi sono sempre chiesta se il mio timore più grande fosse la paura di fallire nella mia più grande passione.
Alla fine ci sono arrivata lo stesso: oggi sono una graphic designer. Grazie al mio percorso di studi, posso lavorare in 4 lingue con una conoscenza a 360° della comunicazione e delle esigenze di un'azienda e questo mi ha aiutato molto nella mia nuova vita a Barcellona.
E ho capito quella frase che diceva Steve Jobs: unire i puntini. A volte il percorso ci sembra contorto, difficile, pensiamo di aver sbagliato tutto. E invece tutto aveva un senso.

Ora quell'insicurezza mi è rimasta, motivo per cui, fatico a mostrare i miei lavori. Però ecco qui, l'ultimo disegno per Bike Creative, uno shop aperto insieme ad alcuni amici, che unisce nuove passioni: disegno, bici, viaggi.

Se volete acquistarne una per voi, o fare un regalo per Natale, la trovate nello shop: www.bikecreative.it oppure link in bio!