so I'm starting a new adventure. years after the last cycle trip - the last real one, with a lot of miles, bikepacking, with no one to hand me a water bottle when it's hot.
after a cycling trip with friends, with a support van carrying luggage, water, snacks, air pump and - sometimes - cyclists, we thought about doing Milan to Paris, with the same group. then life got in the middle, the program blew up, but I kept the will to do it, even alone.
Milan to Paris was not new to me, so looking for an alternative I got into a peculiar story, about the line of Saint Michael.
the story goes that the archangel, while fighting lucifer, struck a sword blow, cutting a straight line on earth, and along this line seven monasteries, or sanctuaries, have been built. so, there are seven places, dedicated to Saint Michael, all perfectly aligned. Skellig Michael in Ireland, St.Michael Mount in Cornwall, Mont-St-Michel in Normandy, Sacra di San Michele near Turin, Monte Sant'Angelo in Apulia, on Simi island in Greece, and Stella Maris in Haifa, Israel.
(small technical digression: this line is clearly a straight rhumb, so if you draw it on a globe instead of on a flat map, it will appear as a curved line. if it was a orthodromic - or great circle - route, it would be a real straight line, but it woul not connect any of the five intermediate monasteries. sorry, I have just broken this legend)
legend or not, it seems to me a great excuse for a bicycle travel. cycling across the islands is quite complex, and as I love cycling in France, I took a decision: I'll start from Sacra di San Michele, near Turin, and I'll get up to Mt-Saint-Michel, in Normandy.
after a cycling trip with friends, with a support van carrying luggage, water, snacks, air pump and - sometimes - cyclists, we thought about doing Milan to Paris, with the same group. then life got in the middle, the program blew up, but I kept the will to do it, even alone.
Milan to Paris was not new to me, so looking for an alternative I got into a peculiar story, about the line of Saint Michael.
the story goes that the archangel, while fighting lucifer, struck a sword blow, cutting a straight line on earth, and along this line seven monasteries, or sanctuaries, have been built. so, there are seven places, dedicated to Saint Michael, all perfectly aligned. Skellig Michael in Ireland, St.Michael Mount in Cornwall, Mont-St-Michel in Normandy, Sacra di San Michele near Turin, Monte Sant'Angelo in Apulia, on Simi island in Greece, and Stella Maris in Haifa, Israel.
legend or not, it seems to me a great excuse for a bicycle travel. cycling across the islands is quite complex, and as I love cycling in France, I took a decision: I'll start from Sacra di San Michele, near Turin, and I'll get up to Mt-Saint-Michel, in Normandy.
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