Because only the bicycle provides the opportunity of silent travel, diving into the environment, interacting with the essence of the elements. The road in this case is the journey and the bicycle is the vehicle that does not impose any barrier with the outside world and therefore facilitates encounters, knowledge, shared experiences with people, the most important value of this territory. Just think of Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli, who founded the Touring Club Ciclistico Italiano (later Touring Club Italiano) in 1894 and travelled through Calabria by bicycle in 1897. He was probably the first pedal-powered reporter who chronicled this land through the people: housewives, shepherds, poets, innkeepers, priests and scoundrels. And as Augusto Guido Bianchi, then editor-in-chief of the Corriere della Sera, who kept track of Bertarelli’s adventures, recalled: “If you talk to people from northern Italy about Calabria, they will fearfully shake theirhead and talk to you about brigands, conical hats, trombones... In this respect, Bertarelli’s journey should teach us northern Italians something, namely that in those lands, safety couldn’t be greater, and that a cyclist can travel alone, knowing that he or she will find hospitality everywhere.” After more than a century, nothing has changed.

The human landscape that so fascinated travellers of yesteryear retains the same soul, in many different guises. The bike route runs through 14 municipalities. More precisely, there are 14 communities that, thanks to this project, can weave their stories together, each with their own individual thread. The bike route is a shared theme that points the way in an unexpected Calabria where roots and traditions are not conservative dimensions but sources of inspiration for visionary minds, industrious hands and open hearts. Welcome to the land of savoir faire, hence of savoir vivre. Riding a bike in this fragment of Calabria becomes a journey of meaning, a privileged route where beauty is not just contemplation but the warmth of hospitality, the scents and flavours of a cuisine that is as genuine as the people of Calabria. Squares, fountains, bars, benches, churches, craft workshops, and local restaurants are the daily stops on an extraordinary journey.