Giorgio is one of our snowboard and ski instructors during the winters in St Moritz. When the winter season ends and the snow starts melting he still spends as much time as possible in the mountains doing the other activities that he really loves: cycling and taking photos of wildlife and nature.
Cycling is also part of his summer work, while photography so far is only a big passion and hobby.
Riding, Guiding and Fixing Bikes
During the last few summers Giorgio worked in a bike rental in his hometown in the Italian Alps, where his main tasks were maintaining the bikes and, a few times a week, guiding private tours.
Learning the mechanics of a bike required a few courses and a bit of experience. For the guiding part, Giorgio could take advantage of his experience as a snowsports instructor and share with his guests the knowledge of his “home-mountains” and nature.
But last year he decided that, in the summer of 2025, he would take a break from work and embark on a “once in a lifetime” journey.
A Big Adventure Awaits
In the past Giorgio has done some working-holiday experiences travelling in a built-in van: for 2 years in Australia, 1 year in New Zealand and another year in Canada.
But this time was different: he was going to travel, together with his girlfriend Simone, by bike!
The destination was Northern Europe; they had always wanted to see the Norwegian coastline so they decided that this would be the main goal! But, as they took the summer off from work and had the whole season to enjoy, Norway wasn’t going to be the only destination.
Let’s Talk About the Trip Itself
The trip started on the 11th of May from Giorgio’s hometown. After 3 days of cycling they got to Lugano (Switzerland) where they jumped on a bus to München from where they continued by train to reach Hamburg (Germany).
Here the “real” trip started, as they pedalled to Denmark and followed the whole Danish west coast.
From the top of the Country they took a ferry to Kristiansand (south of Norway) and from there they cycled following the coastline of Norway, passing Lindesnes lighthouse (Norway’s southernmost point), all the way to North Cape (the Northernmost point in Europe accessible by road)!
We are talking about, more or less, 4500 km and this took Giorgio and Simone 54 days on the bikes! But North Cape wasn’t the final destination… From there they turned their bikes around and started cycling south, towards Italy!
After biking the whole length of Finland they crossed Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Austria and Slovenia to finally reach their goal and arrive home on September the 16th, after cycling a total length of circa 11000 km (yes, you read that right, 11 thousand!) and seeing some of the best scenery that Europe can offer.
What Was it Really Like?
During their travel Giorgio and Simone decided to spend most of their nights wild camping. This was possible thanks to the fact that most European northern countries have the so called “Everyman’s right” that allows everyone to put up a tent almost everywhere; obviously there are some rules to follow.
One of the biggest challenges about sleeping in a tent in the great north is the midnight sun; for some weeks they had light 24 hours a day! Although they really loved this experience it also made it a little harder to sleep, but using a sleep mask did the trick and helped them during this period.
Another big challenge (probably the harder one) was the Norwegian coastal weather, constantly changing with quite a lot of rainfall! What helped Giorgio and Simone getting over this has been waterproof socks… it might seem like a small thing but having dry feet while cycling during a rainy and quite cold day really helps to keep a positive mood!
Anyway, also if the weather sometimes did not collaborate, they really loved the whole Norwegian coast, where they found incredibly beautiful landscapes and very friendly people!
Along their trip they also had a lot of opportunities to enjoy encounters with wildlife: apart from roe-deers and reindeer, being the most numerous, they also got to see a few moose, hares, sea eagles, foxes and cranes.. without forgetting all the small, beautiful birds and billions of (not so beautiful but very “friendly”) mosquitoes!
Equipment Challenges
In more than 4 months there’s also been time for some things to go wrong or make their life harder… Now and then their bikes had some damage. These ranged from an easy to fix broken gear cable or wheel spoke to a damaged back wheel due to the mix of heavy weight and bumpy roads. During the whole tour they rode more than 600km on dirt roads and some of them were quite bad and bumpy… while a few kilometres were practically impossible to cycle, because of sand/mud or crazy steep terrain.
In this case, the only option was to bike to the nearest bike shop and buy a new wheel, even when the nearest shop was 80km away. Anyway, even considering these “downsides” Giorgio says that, looking back, they really enjoyed every single moment of this amazing adventure!
In Giorgio’s Words
“One of the biggest lessons this bike trip thought me is: if you have a dream, whatever it might be, go for it! If you are determined and keep going (also in the “dark days”) you’ll get there! At the end you will not only fulfill your dream but also gain confidence and get stronger”
“It’s been an incredible journey; obviously with its ups and downs…but also those, together with the everyday challenges a trip like this brings, are a good help to learn something new about ourselves and to push our limits a bit further.
Now it’s time to fully realise what happened this summer and, then, start thinking about winter again. But I’m sure that soon I’ll get some new ideas for a new, exciting, adventure”
In the Winters
In winter, Giorgio is a qualified ski and snowboard instructor with Ski Cool St Moritz and ES. Living in the mountains he started skiing at a very young age and at 14 he also got into snowboarding. After getting his snowboard qualification, he worked in Canada and also got his ski qualification in Switzerland. He now teaches both ski and snowboard in St Moritz. Giorgio is very patient and will find the best way to get his guests to improve their riding (or overcome their fears) without rushing things too much, but with a focus on safety, fun and the experience itself.
Contact us to book lessons with Giorgio in St.Moritz.