Quando si viaggia senza meta apparente ne direzione sono gli incontri che ti dirottano verso luoghi che nemmeno la tua mente immagina, solo così il futuro che t'aspetta è inimmaginabile. Ci dirigiamo verso Ankara senza le idee tanto chiare; le strade sono piatte e il traffico purtroppo non è una rarità. Facciamo sosta sotto ad un tendone per bere del cay e un turco elegante e spigliato in un ottimo inglese si interessa del nostro strano mezzo. Senza mezzi termini ci invita a prendere subito verso il sud senza badare alle grandi città monotone del centro Anatolia. Ci fa vedere alcune strade sulla mappa e a noi ci piace, ci ricorda un amico comune e il gioco è fatto, va bene al prossimo incrocio giriamo a sinistra allora. Riempiamo le borracce e tentiamo invano di pagare il conto. Dirigiamo quindi verso anonimi villaggi mai sfiorati da turista e d'incanto siamo gli unici abitanti della strada. La bussola punta esattamente verso sud e dirigiamo verso Goreme al centro della Cappadocia. Speravo in saliscendi più docili ma siamo motivati, gli incontri sulla strada iniziano e finiscono sempre con sorrisi e gesti di stima per quello chetiamo facendo. Ovviamente l'inglese è più raro dell'ombra in queste zone ma non incontriamo grossi problemi, i turchi si fanno in quattro per aiutarci. Molte volte telefonano per vedere dove possiamo trovare una sistemazione per la notte o ci offrono rimesse degli attrezzi. Questa mattina però la dea dell'attrito volgente che prego ogni notte prima di addormentarmi è furente, non basta una salita mozzafiato, un'infinita lingua di catrame fresco attende la ghiaia che si trasformerà in asfalto. Colla, è semplicemente colla. Sputiamo l'anima ad ogni pedalata ma anche con la discesa la faccenda non cambia, si deve spingere…nella mia vita di viaggiatore il catrame ancora caldo mi mancava. Sembra non finire mai. La ghiaia poi c'incasina ancora di più e la bici s'impianta. Solo la disperazione ci muove. Tentiamo una deviazione su per una salita che guardandola sai già che deve scender e spingere, non c'è sulla mappa ma l'incostanza ci guida. Mai cosa è stata più giusta, in cima c'è una fontana…l'hanno messa per noi si direbbe. Il paesaggio si apre su infinite distese di grano e la strada bianchissima la posso intravedere fino all'orizzonte…non c'è più salita. Alla notizia Simone spinge come un treno e come per incanto ci ricongiungiamo con la dannata strada incatramata ma un lembo lasciato intonso ci lascia proseguire senza problemi. Ora siamo scesi dalle montagne e la pianura tanto desiderata in due giorni ritorna ad essere una noia mortale. Siamo obbligati a tappe lunghissime per trovare posti dove dormire, il mio compagno ha bisogno di un po' di tempo per abituarsi a dormire dove capita ed effettivamente qui il sole sorge alle 5 e dopo un quarto d'ora già brucia. Pedalare di notte è cosa molto stupida ma i nervi sono apposto e non corriamo rischi più di tanto. All'arrivo in queste sperdute cittadine destiamo parecchio stupore e abbiamo sempre sconti e le camere migliori. Una mattina c'appare sulla nostra destra un immenso lago di sale, obbligatoria tappa ma andarci dentro tenendo d'occhio la bici non è facile, optiamo per un turno di guardia. Ci sommergono flotte di turisti Italiani che scendono di corsa da lussuosissimo pullman, non ci degnano di uno sguardo, siamo invisibili. Particolare che a me non dispiace ma che a Simone lascia un po' sgomento. L'indomani siamo a Goreme, un paesino costruito dentro le grotte scavate nei secoli dai monaci bizantini e da popolazioni greche succedutegli. La meta turistica in primis di queste terre e per noi un luogo ideale per riposarci dopo più di una settimana di pedalata non stop. Spavaldi l'indomani si prende la bici per visitarne i dintorni ma conveniamo in perfetta sintonia che è una cazzata, noleggiamo una motoretta e perlustriamo l'intera zona con tappe di più di duecento chilometri al giorno. Di viaggiatori come ad Istanbul neanche l'ombra ma sono molto interessanti le amicizie che facciamo. Dopo un po' di giorni anche le più belle chiese affrescate o i paesaggi mozzafiato stancano e diamo l'addio alla cappadocia ammirando il tramonto dal punto più alto della valle. Non siamo soli su questo immenso masso di tufo denso di cunicoli e terrazze. Sulla cima il suono di un clarinetto accompagnato da due chitarre crea la colonna sonora perfetta per vedere il sole scomparire, mi devo ricredere, non sempre i turisti sono inutili. Simone si isola su di un masso mentre io armeggio con la macchina fotografica, non so' cosa riesce a vedere ne a cosa sta' pensando, immagino che questa melodia gli faccia bene. Al ritorno ho la prova che non mi sbagliavo e mi dice che finalmente sta' entrando a pieno in questa avventura, ha parlato al vento la su e ha avuto una risposta. Ora dirigiamo verso est convinti di procedere dormendo in tenda sia per assaporare al meglio questa terra sia per risparmiare ma soprattutto per cominciare a fare i viaggiatori seri. Impossibile, veniamo invitti prima a cena e poi in un convitto di studenti dove rifacciamo un'altra cena e parliamo liberamente dei nostri sogni. Gli stessi, assolutamente gli stessi. I ragazzi quì hanno le nostre medesime idee sul mondo e la tenerezza con cui facciamo conversazione è toccante. Ci ringraziano di essere capitai sulla loro strada e di avergli dato speranza. Rimaniamo senza parole. Solo un'ombra su tutto, maledetti Kurdi. A pochi chilometri da Malatya foriamo per la prima volta e come un macigno mi travolge l'angoscia di aver trascurato terribilmente la nostra bici. Che deficiente, ma come ho potuto commettere un errore simile, io che rinunciavo al gasolio per cucinare pur di pulire il cambio della mia vecchia bici in Tibet. La risposta è lampante quanto la mia stupidità…non c'è ancora il feeling giusto tra la mia mente e ciò che sto facendo…mi sembra quasi un lavoro più che il mio sogno, è triste ma sto prendendo coscienza che non ho tutti i ricettori attivi ne la concentrazione per cogliere quello che mi circonda, sono in una bolla trasparente fuori dal conteso in cui sono ora. L'immensa responsabilità nei confronti di Simone, gli sponsor, l'eco mediatico, ecc ecc, sono tutti elementi che non avevano mai fatto parte dei miei viaggi e non riesco ad assimilarli. Fino ad oggi ho pedalato sempre guardandomi avanti cercando di scorgere l'orizzonte a più non posso. Ora invece mi guardo indietro, sto attento a come comportarmi con Simone e con tutti quelli a cui devo gratitudine, non riesco ad assaporare quello che mi accade. Mi piacevo indubbiamente di più tante tempo fa. Il mio primo pensiero era quello di riempirmi i polmoni d'aria pura ogni mattina appena messo il naso fuori dalla tenda, ora il mio primo pensiero è se sto facendo la cosa giusta. Non sono pronto per una convivenza con un disabile in questo contesto e ho nostalgia della mia libertà, quando sono molto stanco sapere che sto facendo un'immensa fatica in più del solito mi fa quasi impazzire e sapere che non ho una spalla su cui poggiare nei momenti di sconforto è terribile. Desidero un rimedio e rifletto ai limiti della meditazione e il primo passo lo faccio nell'amare questo tandem come tutti i mie fedeli cavalli meccanici precedenti. Lo puliamo fino all'ossessione e togliamo tutto il catrame dai freni e dai parafanghi, mi accorgo che il pneumatico posteriore ha subito un'usura sorprendente a causa di detriti appuntiti inglobati del catrame, nei prossimi giorni lo invertirò con quello davanti. Sostituisco i freni mentre Simone ingrassa le selle, perfino il mozzo dietro è piegato, il troppo carico lo ha quasi spezzato e sapermi così vicino ad una rottura tanto grave mi da la nausea. Ora la bici è pulita e si sente un po' più amata, sembra avere il motore, piccolo, non potente, facciamo meno fatica, sembra ci sia meno attrito, la mia dea sta' cominciando ad avere un'occhio di riguardo per me.

I've been travelling for a month and a half . Day after day I'm going away from the place I' ve always called home and I'm getting used to think about the world as my home.. It's really a hard journey for me : having a very serious visual deficiency and being obliged to change situations and environment so often, brings me to waste a lot of my mental energies.If you add the effort which is hardly counterbalanced by the enthusiasm to ride towards new places and new experiences, you can understand that the recovery of my strength is longer than my fellow-traveller's, even if I feel that my body and my mind are quickly developing a new rhythm. Mine is quite different from the experience of al travellers who can be rewarded by the new landscape or by a passer-by's smile to refresh his spirit like a fresh wind can do when you are overheated and tired.... I must find a strong involvement and concentration only in myself. Once again I'm finding out that music is my aid.: it carries me out of the effort leaving my legs light and speedy even in the hardest slopes. When I'm not riding the bike and I'm not under a physical effort, my senses are always on the alert, ready to catch new sounds, new smells and new tactile sensations requiring all my energies to recognize them. I must say that up to now it has been a hard trip , harder than I thought before leaving. My fellow - traveller has also found some difficulties. Not used to travel with a person with this kind of problems, he tries to equilibrate my efforts but sometimes he loses his rhythm to follow mine and that can cause him some problems. It has not been possible to make a proper and long training for such an effort but with a great determination , hard labour and useful discussions we are going on, improving our mutual understanding, so necessary when you ride a tandem. And in my opinion the results are coming, giving me a new push. People I met on the road have welcome me with wonder, great respect and love, filling my energetic tanks .Thanks to them and to all the friends who write and have been closed to me I got over the hardest moments. Now we are in Turkey and we are going to enter the Eastern world : I have the feeling that the real journey is starting now and I'm sure it will be a unique and great experience for me. Just from the beginning I got the impression that it would have been quite hard for me. Before leaving my body has been trained a lot but not with such a heavy burden like a a loaded tandem . Luckily I can rely on my partner who has already been through this kind of experience and has a time to recover his strength quicker than mine. We ride about 100-150 km a day with a longer stop every 4-5 days. I notice that day by day I'm getting used to this rhythm but it has been a problem also travelling under the dazzling light of the sun : I had to use particular sun screens for my glasses. My body is under a severe test and it's necessary to have a good will power to go on ,suffering from my handicap. My fellow-traveller's experience is essential in many situations. Riding the Balkan mountains has been a kind of running-in period . As from Turkey our pace is completely changed .I moved my attention from me and my feelings to the trip , going ...verso dove non so..., which is Dino's sentence but which is now becoming more understood, a kind of attraction towards something I don't know and which takes you towards a kind of total listening, expecially if your mean of transport is a bike. Having this aim, my effort and my troble are a joy. Any price I have to pay for this experience is worth while. I think THIS is life. At the moment we have almost crossed Turkey and we start dreaming about Iran

The bike coming towards us is low, fast and its rider is wearing a helmet...that can't be a bulgarian. It's Fabio, who got married here in Plovdiv and started a spectacular family. He takes us to his place, where the much coveted new derailleur has been sent. His parents, who were just here for a visit, left a fridge filled with "soppressa" and "grana", so touching!...We stuff our faces and we stay up until the wee hours of the morning narrating our lives. The next day I clean up the balcony and get all the tools ready as if they were surgical ones. I polish the bike and study the new wheel. I'm covered in sweat and don't really know what I am doing: I start taking it apart. The spheres of the bearings just pop into my hand and that can't be good but still I manage to exactly follow the instructions that were sent along. Tense as if performing open heart surgery, I close and grease it all up, hoping for the patient to regain consciousness. The wheel turns and all the gears engage…Yes! Now we can really make it to India. Here in Bulgaria the sunflowers don't face the sun, it's kind of a low-profile country and it doesn't give us the energy that we are such in need of to carry on this trip. Our attraction to the East keeps us pedaling and in two days we cross the Turkish border. In Edirne we come across a tiny little wrecked hotel where they clearly screw us on the price and later we get way overcharged for a kebab on the street… although hideous, these gestures still bring back the taste of travel in my mouth. The mosques, women wearing veils, Islam… now everything is really new for us, now everything gets really interesting. The Europe from which we come from is only thirty km back but somehow feels a long way off. All excited we make our way to Istanbul. The adrenaline rush triggered by arriving in this legendary city blends with the nervous strain of facing the most chaotic traffic I’ve ever experienced. My usually cold blood is boiling as I lead our four-meters-long bike squeezed between the guardrail and the too close sides of humongous trucks. Exhausted, I retreat to a random side road regaining grip on our lives. Yet again randomly, just by following the sea, we come in sight of the Blue Mosque. One month of never imagined hard work to get to the city that always awakened my interest when heard in the lyrics of a song or in the tales of much older fellow travelers. Now it’s being served to me on a silver platter, ready to be explored to the limit. Once again we let fate lead us to a less than ordinary guesthouse. It may be because of the lowest prices in town but it looks like half the world’s travelers have rendezvous here and I couldn’t be missing. People coming from anywhere, people who have been away for years – or are going to be, people with crazy stories that you can believe only because they almost happened to you too, people who went through jungles and deserts, people who suggest where you should go and people who will go where you suggested, people who made it across forbidden borders or who left their homes only to get back better people…in other words people like me. Energy! The latter takes hold of Simone whose english is starting to kick in and whatever we were missing magically appears. The encounter with my world must have convinced him that all the hard work so far has been totally worth it. We roam the city with various friends and live the nights till dawn. The fatal attraction to this hostel almost makes us forget the purpose of our trip but upon our departure the pain in the bottom from km first immediately brings us right back to it. We are now bound for Cappadocia, we are now bound verso dove non so.

We left Belgrade, still confused by the incredible hospitality of Serbia, the food offered to us at the departure weigh on the stomach as boulders but the enthusiasm for   the people we met, push us  as downwind . We go down the river Morava looking for plains as possible, rolling hills and huge campaigns take us almost to the point of boredom but  the rain comes and sweeps away the monotony. Stages forced to 150km to get  Bulgaria soon,  to replace the gearbox damaged by too much load. With the new lighter set up the bike is far more manageable and safe, a rearview mirror  makes  to pedal  easier in these trafficked roads. From Jagodina we take to the open countryside and leave the flat freeway, even more up and down on hills and from the sky rain without a break. We felt lost many times but without asking, someone approaches us and gives us all the information to get back on the right way,  the hospitality of this people still amaze us. We leave from  Nis under a relentless deluge and we carry on to the Bulgarian border following the fast but busy highway. Rain puts on you a strange melancholy atmosphere that brings up those romantic thoughts never concluded, many hours of our ride was dedicated to them. A Dimitrograd we grieve with the Serbs for the lost soccer game and the next day we cross  another border, we are in Bulgaria. The road seems made for the bike, soft climbs succeeds long descents, meadows and pine forests all around while at the horizon surreal rocky hills. The Tandem run as fast as the wind and we do not even care about the stray dogs attempt to chase us. Soon we arrive in Sofia in which is hard to keep back the Gypsy children who try to steal the flag of the trolley. Tomorrow we will visit the city and then leave for Plovdiv where there is already our gearbox waiting for us, we hope to be able to set it up, and we have no alternative. The forces are fully operational and legs are more and more.

Split the first thousand miles, think about that we still have fourteen times more does not scare us at all, rather it excites us. So far was not easy, because the warm weather and the unperfect set up of our two strange minds. But the important decisions comes up spontaneously and the problems flats down, the road sometimes not, and push our pachyderm tandem to the top of the hills really takes our breath away. Since the first pedal our gear was not ok, it is definitely compromise and we almost pedal on tiptoe not to hear the thud final bury it. The decision is made, it should be chang soon. We understand that we cannot trust in assistance at the next stop,our gear is too much technical an rare, we need an intervention from the homemade, they should replace this indecipherable magic box. From my first travels around the world, the must is move with the most trivial things and easily retrievable everywhere, but we trust the absolute guarantee ... but for every innkeeper his wine is always the best of all. However in the next day we will invent something and we hope that this time the innkeeper send us the new wine of the year, here in the Balkans ... if not, we’ll drink beer. A big problem like this could knock out several travelers, first of all because it’s hard to resolve and second because happened just outside home. In our case however, it is strengthening us and is almost a blessing because is giving time to think about us. The evaluation error at the beginning cost me doubts and disappointments, this trip is too different from my earlier ones, I can not taste the world as I’m use to, feel freedom sliding under the wheels, I rate thousand times any decision to take and, many times, the first instinct was by , but now the responsibility for the safety of Simone almost anguish me . The unquestionable confidence that I had known in him when we were planning the trip, meter after meter fade out and his inexperience in travel does not help me at all .. this life is not spontaneous to him and he is fighting thousand internal battles due to his disability, I even dare to imagine ... How could I not do these considerations? More certainly my dark and angry moods did not help, due to 100% of responsibility on my shoulders and my stifled traveler instincts. We can’t go on like this…he needs my energy to see, he needs to feel safe with my experience, he needs my Englishitaliano to learn and gain experience. With these conclusions we do not turn back at the next buoy to come home and say "we were wrong is too difficult," No! Now the cards have been discovered and we put aside our titanic pride and we have a new route, always eastward, but aware of fears and needs of each other. Will no longer be the travel with Dino and Simone going to India ... but Dino's leading Simon to India ... and will be great! We are not visionaries but something tells us that somehow it will always be better. In a few days will show us up first real climbs, with some slight breeze blowing away this damn sultry. As we planned the new gear should be waiting us in Bulgaria at the home of a friend who contacted us, then we'll see if maybe take a dive in the sea of Greece or simply go to Turkey.

Travel to learn, to see places I never imagined ... travel to be better. With this purpose many years ago I put on my shoulders a backpack and I headed toward that unknown place that inspired me most. Since then many changes, many places and thousands of lifes crossed. All I have met left me a fragment of them and vice versa, I am convinced that we become the sum of the people we meet day by day, for brief moments or intense love we form our daily life drawing from experiences of others, and combinations of our with their. there is no progress without confrontation. Perhaps this is why I leave my faithful and reassuring solitude to share each moment of this new travel with my friend Simon. Abandoning the supposed infallibility of my mind to accept any comparisons trivial choice, is not in my nature, but ... until now I survived thanks to my innate instinct to find immediate solutions to unexpected problems regardless of whether the best but only the will to implement But I already know how to do it, but it’s not enough to be better. I convince myself that every day the enormity of emotions increases tenfold if you share, if you feel in more than one perceives reality, if you discuss about you can understand it better; otherwise all takes the form of satisfaction of a painter for his painting and you never try new combinations of colors and trends impressionist Today I want to mix with sienna-red and crimson paint what is happening around me, I want to challenge my classical method to deal with any eventuality and sweeten it with shades of blue and gray, I want to learn to listen not only what fascinates me but also what I consider inappropriate. . No doubt I’m travelling with the best person to teach this and more. Unfortunately, the departure is not the most carefree. The bike is heavy and the gearbox seems to abandoning us,and our energies must quickly find a balance otherwise the problems we already have will be added to those that await us. In my opinion there are solutions and I dominoes on, but this time I’m not alone and different minds inevitably produce different plans. Only through unhappy discussions, the common idea to send toward the winter gear and then find it, seems the best to lighten the load and allow breathing our gear. . If not enough without it, we’ll replace it with something less sophisticated but solid, this was an uncommon complication and the final set scare. As if that were not enough, learn to manage the website from here is not trivial. For every problem there is a solution but we must back up our mental shape and tie during the ride. The mood inevitably must be excellent and truly far we tested us enough too to see if this is possible. I have no doubt that in a few thousand kilometers we will be one motor and a single mind but for now everything is too much new, as the best machine needs running, we need it too. I see with confidence the next kms and already begin to feel the smell of the next sea we’ll see together. Now we cycle under this sun friend, but it didn’t warned about its sudden power, we are not afraid of food and thirst, we have already donate several kilos to the goddess of adventure ... but we know she loves us and she will gave us them back next winter. There is not complaining either retraction but enthusiasm and expectation ... we go forward ...