Claudia, me and Clara from Albergo Ca Venezia in Vergato who by the way can from now on accept bitcoin for payment

First day of the tour from Florence to Sassuolo got kicked off on rather upsetting terms. Right from the get go, the bike navigation didn’t work so I had to resort to Google Maps to guide me through. On a normal day, this wouldn’t be the end of the world but since Google Maps apparently doesn’t do bike routes in Italy, it took me through hiking routes! Up and down the bumpy hills I went! Up and down, up and down! In fact, already after the first 15 km which took more than an hour, I had added 600 meters of unplanned altitude.

Funny sidenote: On top of the second mountain which I guess was about 6–7 km uphill, I passed Monte di Fo. It reminded me of FOMO which is a good analogy to bitcoin!

Monte di Fo(mo) shortly before the mountain top was reached.

The plot thickened

At some point, the navigation further took me down an even more bumpier road and after a long thread of uphills and downhills without any other road forking it, I came to a fence with a sign saying, “no trespassing” in Italian.

Since the thought of going back down the bumpy road behind me was too hard to bare, I decided to open the gate and go through it. This entry brought me to another blockade; this time, it was made out of cement which I further, rather bravely, decided to trespass.

As I got closer to the ultimate reason for all the hurdles, the uneasy feeling at the pit of my stomach grew stronger as I knew I had to go all the way back! Over the cement block, down the unpaved path, through the closed gate and down the bumpy road again.

An avalanche had taken about 100 meters of the road down with it. There was no trespassing this one! This (let’s call it a detour) cost me another hour of precious time.

An avalanche took away the whole street. In the back, you can even see the leftover guard rail.

Today started at 9am and with a few breaks and some detours, ended at 6pm. The plan was to make it to Sassuolo by 5pm but I was only able to manage 90 km instead of the originally planned 143 km. As the dark brought with it the even colder weather (during the day, it was between -3 and 3 degrees Celcius), I decided to stay at the next upcoming town called Vergato.

Last challenge of the day

After talking to the locals, I quickly found out that the only hotel in town is Albergo Ca Venezia so I had no choice but to go there and try my luck.

When I arrived at the hotel, none of the owners were available so I had to wait for over an hour for the owners’ daughter, Clara, to arrive. Clara was very skeptical about my proposal to offer bitcoin as payment for a night’s stay and dinner. Her doubts didn’t seem to shake off despite my many arguments. As she refused and I persisted, she finally offered to call her Mom as the final decision rested with her. As I impatiently waited for Clara to discuss the matter with her mom, many more convincing arguments were subconsciously being prepared in my head but before I could even form them into sentences, Clara’s mom, Claudia, immediately said “yes”. She even came down to ask more about the tour as we opened an Electrum wallet for them to accept the payment (here you can see the transaction). For 1.65 million satoshis (or 0.0165 btc = about 55 Euros), I got a room plus a 2 course dinner including a salad buffet. It also brought on many smiles from the hotel staff who apparently found the whole story wildly entertaining.

As I close the first day of the tour, I am very excited to have successfully contributed to the bitcoin community. Even though, the planned destination wasn’t reached, it feels empowering to have been able to pay with bitcoin in a small village in Italy.

Claudia, me and Clara after the btc transaction

The bitcoin on my wallet, however, won’t be enough for tomorrow’s night. So I am asking proud bitcoin owners to support my efforts and help me get through the Tour de Satoshi.

For donations, here’s my btc (segwit) wallet address:

bc1q87jy2c28snel5tj3c5q94fdfuy9xwhl0ljlysn

And my btc (legacy) wallet address:

1P3UwoDLhqJZbkYiZuKQZrmZvbB2GssLB

Thank you so much for reading, sharing and supporting! Updates on the Tour de Satoshi will continue so don’t forget to follow me to get the latest.

Peace.

Vitus