{"id":10802,"date":"2026-10-03T22:03:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/velomag.eu\/dreams-on-wheels\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T22:03:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:03:05","slug":"dreams-on-wheels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/velomag.eu\/nl\/dreams-on-wheels\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreams on Wheels"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Shanghai to Narni by Bicycle: “No Dream Is Impossible”<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 30, 2025, I embarked on a journey from Shanghai with a goal both simple to state and challenging to achieve: to return home to Narni by bicycle.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t an experienced cyclist; in fact, when I set out, I knew little about bicycles. All I had was a bike, some luggage, and a grand dream: to traverse Asia and return home pedaling.<\/p>\n

From Shanghai, I crossed China and Southeast Asia, then entered the heart of Central Asia, cycling through the vast mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and traversing the immense deserts of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. I continued towards the Caucasus, crossed Turkey, and finally Europe, reaching Italy.<\/p>\n

These months were filled with thousands of kilometers, ascents, descents, borders, and landscapes I will hardly forget. But, looking back on the journey, I realize that what I remember most are not the places.<\/p>\n

It’s the people.<\/p>\n

During my travels, I rediscovered humanity in the simplest gestures. I found it in the deserts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, when people who didn’t know me stopped to offer me food or drink. I found it in those who, seeing me pass with a loaded bicycle, stopped simply to ask if I was well. I found it in people who helped me without expecting anything in return.<\/p>\n

And above all, I learned to trust strangers.<\/p>\n

When you travel alone, especially in places so far from home, you might feel that you have to rely solely on your own strength. In reality, along the way, I discovered exactly the opposite. I realized that you can meet a person for just a few minutes and receive from them a kindness that you will remember for a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Naturally, it wasn’t always easy.<\/p>\n

There were days when the wind was so strong that it made even moving forward difficult. Days of fatigue, loneliness, and discouragement. There were mechanical problems, endless roads, and moments when I wondered if I had really done well to set out.<\/p>\n

Especially in the deserts of Central Asia, I had to confront true fatigue: hundreds of kilometers without cities or shops, the weight of water and food to carry, and the awareness that, for some days, I could rely almost exclusively on myself.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite everything, in my mind, there was always the same thought.<\/p>\n

Home.<\/p>\n

For months, every single effort had meaning because it had a direction. Every ascent, every headwind pedal stroke, every difficult day was part of a journey with a single goal: to return to Narni. It was this thought that made me set off every morning.<\/p>\n

Then, on July 10, 2026, that day finally arrived. I entered Narni by bicycle and completed the journey.<\/p>\n

And the strangest thing was precisely that: for months, I had imagined that moment. I had dreamed of arriving home, of finally being able to stop pedaling and say, “I did it.”<\/p>\n

But when I arrived, suddenly, there was no longer a destination ahead of me.<\/p>\n

For months, I had lived with a single goal, and at the moment I achieved it, that goal had disappeared.<\/p>\n

It was strange to return to normality after spending so much time living on the road. Strange not to have a city to reach the next day, not to have to check the distance, the wind, the water, or where I would sleep.<\/p>\n

And perhaps it was precisely at that moment that I truly understood what this journey had been. When I left China, I didn’t know if I would make it to the end. I didn’t have all the answers, and I wasn’t sure that this dream was achievable.<\/p>\n

I only had the courage to leave.<\/p>\n

Today, I have returned home with the awareness that dreams, as long as they remain in our heads, may seem impossible. They may seem too big, too distant, too difficult.<\/p>\n

But when you find the courage to leave, something changes.<\/p>\n

A dream becomes a road. The road becomes a journey. And the journey, one day, becomes a memory.<\/p>\n

I left Shanghai with a bicycle, some luggage, and a grand dream. I returned home after realizing it.<\/p>\n

And perhaps this is the most important thing that cycling has taught me: that no dreams are impossible. There are only dreams for which we still need to find the courage to take the first step.<\/p>\n

[Carlo Caso] <\/p>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Shanghai to Narni by Bicycle: “No Dream Is Impossible” On October 30, 2025, I…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t