Break Free from the Norm

Break free from the norm to embrace a more authentic life, filled with movement, passion, and respect for the environment.

So, after 20 years working in the disability sector, no longer finding a working environment where I could express my knowledge and curiosity, I resigned.

A leap into the unknown, made without a new job as a parachute but a duty towards a professional ethic cultivated over years, towards myself as I understand educational help work, which is made up of closeness and change and not just control and stereotyped responses.

Turning Toward Sport and Nature

So in that void I turned my attention to two things that have always been part of my life: sport, especially cycling, and nature.

I fill my unemployed days with a course for cycle touring guides promoted by the Marche Region, where I live.

The topics are varied: obviously bicycles, riding techniques and mechanics, but also the territory, itineraries, sustainability, the environment, psychology and customer relations.

Giving Passion a Professional Shape

So I found myself giving a professional dimension to my cycling, but also to my innate curiosity for local history, to my desire to write and share information.

And what I was very happy about was being able to once again apply the interpersonal skills I’d learned over my years working with people with disabilities to a wide range of clients, but even more so, to local people with whom I could build itineraries and share a culture of sustainability and sport as a driver of well-being, as well as a tool for the local outdoor sports economy.

Joining La Macina Terre Alte

With this background, I was hired by the La Macina Terre Alte Social Cooperative, which has been working in environmental education for 30 years.

At the time, the cooperative was looking for someone with a social work background and had a project underway focusing on the cycling tourism potential of an area of Montefeltro… I was their woman!

A New Adventure on Two Wheels

Thus began my adventure riding my bike for work, months and months spent up and down hills and mountains, with a Garmin fixed to the handlebars to record tracks and waypoints, processing the data on the computer and constantly comparing it with the cartographer to create routes.

Before and after each bike ride, I document myself to write itineraries that narrate the beauty of the area, its characteristics, and its history.

I also work in the field to build connections with local stakeholders and, of course, with the commissioning body, a public body that wants to promote its land through cycle tourism.

Discovering Territory Through Sport

I spend more than half a day in the saddle in beautiful places, some of which I had never seen before this project.

I meet locals, gain a better understanding of local communities, and all this is thanks to my passion for sport

As a woman, I’ve never been afraid to wander alone, on the road or along trails.

While this initially unsettles the residents of the towns and villages I visit and map for my project, I also enjoy a sincere welcome.

Furthermore, when I explain the reason for my explorations, people show me their pride in belonging to certain areas; they themselves often provide me with information on secondary roads, scenic spots, place names, and legends.

Having information directly from these local sources, rather than simply gleaning it from the internet or publications, gives a vibrant, vibrant feel to my itineraries and, by osmosis, to my cycling.