Antonio Di Guida: “The humanity of traveling by bicycle”

Thirty years old, from Empoli, nomadic for almost 10. It looks like this Antonio Di Guida. “As soon as I finished university studies in architecture, I was terrified of entering the work-relationship-rent spiral, an anxiety that did not make me live and I decided to go to that part of the world where you are happy with nothing: Africa He says. The middle? Many, but above all the bicycle.

Antonio Di Guida is one of the protagonists of the meeting of BAM !, European meeting of cycle travelers, held every year in Mantua. The 2022 edition, from 10 to 12 June, is the first completely post Covid. In those of 2018 and 2019 there were over 5000 amateur cyclists from all over Europe.

His pursuit of happiness passes through the essential and starts with an experience of volunteering in Africa. “Until that moment I had not been able to grasp the beauty in the life I was living.” And the bicycle? «It is that medium that has been able to give me the possibility to meditate and dialogue with my bodyhaving the time to do it and go and discover places and cultures that would have been difficult to meet while traveling in a different way ».

The first trip on two wheels was to Iran, the last to the Middle East, including Palestine. “The bike was a means to get to villages that had never seen a tourist and that made me discover Iran as the most hospitable country I have ever been to. “

«Traveling by bicycle the locals have always seen me as a person who wanted to share their culture, not as a tourist. And also as a person who needs a hand: a place to sleep, help with the bicycle »he adds. The key is humanity on a bicycle trip which becomes a medicine.

It does not take into account the countries visited, trips are not counted in this way. “You take a direction, you don’t make a program.” She lived two years in Australia and two in Asia going from Indonesia to India, he cycled from the Arab states to Italy. In 2017 he moved to America going from California to Chile in 4 years: partly on foot and partly by bicycle.

“I left without asking my parents for money. My father was not convinced of my choice, over time he realized that the journey made me reborn. I made gods seasonal jobs to go to Africa. in Australia I worked hard as a laborer earning money and then investing in myself. From here I started the blog and wrote my first book. With 300-400 euros a month I lived in Asia »he explains, adding that he never left the volunteer. “It is not you who lend a hand to the other, but the others who lend a hand to you who put yourself on the line.”

But can you lead a life like this for just a period of time? “Yes, if you manage to free yourself from your habits. Otherwise it becomes stressful. You have to find your freedom without aiming for perfection. Until the last day there will be things that will not work, but from every negative experience I have learned ».