Hi, I’m Pinar. When I did my first cycle tour 15 years ago, it was the connecting element
between me and Paolo, my husband: he is passionate about rugby and photography, I am
passionate about yoga and writing, both of us are travel lovers, the bicycle was the meeting
point between action and kindness.
It was 2007 and we were living in Germany, in Nuremberg, accomplices of the financial straits of
a young couple just entering the labor market, the combination of “bike + tent” was the perfect
formula to allow us to discover the world. Which, then, was easy in Germany: without navigators
or cell phones, all we had to do was open a map, follow the signs and the course of a few rivers
to go almost anywhere.
After our honeymoon we cycled in Switzerland, Andalusia, Morocco, Iceland, Scotland,
Tuscany, the French Riviera and Provence, Jordan and Syria. And for four months we also
explored South America by bike. Traveling by bicycle has always made me feel free and
carefree. I have always loved that sweet weariness you feel in the evening at the end of a long
day in the saddle in the sun, maybe against the wind, sometimes in the rain.
The only real problem for those who want to travel by bicycle is often the lack of information
available: when you travel by bike, every kilometer counts, and I remember well the time when,
to get into Seville, we ended up on the highway, or the times that, just to avoid overly busy
roads, we pushed the bike for miles and miles through farmland.
In the tourism shows, the bicycle has always been a neglected “of which,” while in the
bike shows, the part dedicated to tourism has always been relegated to a corner, almost
in chastisement.
So I said to myself, “We need a Cycle Tourism Show.” Paolo found it a good idea, so we rolled
up our sleeves and started to create something new that didn’t exist.
The first edition was supposed to be held in late March 2020 in Milan, but the outbreak of the
pandemic and the lockdown forced all of us to revise plans. I like to think that in the past two
years we have not only not stopped, but we have taken the run-up to arrive more ready than
ever for the appointment: in fact, on March 12 and 13, 2022, the first Cycling Tourism Fair was
held, in Milan. Tourism promotion bodies, tour operators, destinations and specialized
publishers collaborated to offer all the information required for those who were planning their
first, or their thousandth, cycling vacation. The Bikeitalia Talks were also held during the Cycle
Tourism Show, a roundup of presentations and meetings involving the most interesting
personalities and professionals in the world of bike travel and who were able to offer useful advice on never being found unprepared.
The first edition was attended by more than 15,000 visitors.
The Cycle Tourism Show is not a bicycle fair: because the protagonists of cycling holidays are
not bicycles, components and accessories but are the people and the landscapes they pass
through.
The Cycle Tourism Show is that event I wish I had visited when I first started traveling by
bicycle, because I would have avoided some unpleasantness. Fifteen years ago there wasn’t
one. Today there is.
If you belong to the BAM! community, you know how to organize a bike trip or cycling
holidays, but your neighbor, colleagues, and relatives most likely do not. If you want
more people to learn about our wonderful world, here is my request. Invite all the people
you love to discover the Cycle Tourism Fair.
You never know who will be inspired for a bike trip!
I look forward to seeing you at the second edition of the Cycle Tourism Show on April 1 and 2 at
the DumBO Space in Bologna. Admission is free.
PS: Ah meanwhile, the show has become a very important event on an international level. Now
together with us, there are Giuliana, Davide, Barbara, Gabriele who, with so much passion, are
working to make a new unforgettable edition.
Info and registration: https://www.fieradelcicloturismo.it/
