Tour de Satoshi

A bitcoin anniversary bike tour from Florence to Frankfurt

Start in Florence (IT): January 3rd

Finish in Frankfurt (DE): January 12th

Equipment during Tour de Satoshi

Backstory

On January 3rd of 2019 which marks the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin (Genesis Block), Vitus Zeller started a 10 day bike tour from Florence to Frankfurt. The tour started in Florence, the birthplace of modern banking, in front of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi and ended in Frankfurt a.M. in front of the European Central Bank (ECB).

It was a 1000 km bike ride with 10,000 meters of altitude with luggage in 10 days in unpredictable cold weather conditions through the Alps. Besides the sportive challenge Vitus' goal was to pay the night’s stays in a hotel with bitcoin. Upon arrival in each destination town, Vitus therefore needed to go from hotel to hotel and try to convince a hotel owner to let him stay a night in return for bitcoin. The final result out of nine nights was: Bitcoin 7:2 Euro.

Prior to starting Vitus published a one pager about Tour de Satoshi and announced it at a bitcoin meetup in Munich. One day before the start of Tour de Satoshi, while sitting in the train to Florence, he published a story on why he is doing this bike tour.

Vitus summarized every single day in his blog on medium as well as produced a short video about Tour de Satoshi.

Challenge

Tour de Satoshi one page announcement

Part 1

Cycle in 10 days through winter from Florence to Frankfurt.

Day 1: Jan 3rd Florence — Sassuolo: 143 km, 2320 m altitude

Day 2: Jan 4th Sassuolo — Cremona: 107 km, 200 m altitude

Day 3: Jan 5th Cremona — Chiavenna: 177 km, 1060 m altitude

Day 4: Jan 6th Chiavenna — Chur: 92 km, 2210 m altitude

Day 5: Jan 7th Chur — Vaduz: 39 km, 30 m altitude

Day 6: Jan 8th Vaduz — Bregenz: 52 km, 30 m altitude

Day 7: Jan 9th Bregenz — Riedlingen: 94 km, 690 m altitude

Day 8: Jan 10th Riedlingen — Stuttgart: 94 km, 1110 m altitude

Day 9: Jan 11th Stuttgart — Heidelberg: 95km, 1020 m altitude

Day 10: Jan 12th Heidelberg — Frankfurt: 91 km 330 m altitude

Part 2

Pay the hotel stays with bitcoin.

Pictures

Day 1: Claudia, Vitus and Clara at Albergo Ca Venezia in Vergato
Day 2: from Vergato to Cremona was a 170 km long ride
Day 3: Vitus with Oreste, his host for the night at Casa al Lago in Lecco.
Day 4: Sandro and Vitus at Hotel Waldhaus am See in St. Moritz
Day 5: Vitus crossing the Alps at the Julierpass in Switzerland
Day 6: Arrival in Bregenz with frozen feet
Day 7: My hosts Angela and Markus at Rosengarten in Riedlingen
Day 8: Max, a fellow bitcoiner in Stuttgart who invited me for dinner
Day 9: After changing clothes at arrival in Heidelberg and before scouting 10 hotels!
Day 10: Happily hugging my wife after arriving at ECB in Frankfurt