Travel | EATALIA – In Search of The Perfect Week
Luigi Mattei has got a mission: finding the best trails and restaurants in Italy and combine them into a guided tour that will represent Italy at it’s best. Proud as every Italian, he wants to create the “perfect week in Italia”. Find out about his project EATALIA and the hard work that it preceded:
“Being an avid biker and living abroad has its perks: being able to ride in many new places as well as enjoy time with great people from different backgrounds.
Nevertheless as an Italian, there is nothing like being back home enjoying nice weather, an easy going lifestyle and having good fun with some old friends on a trail! Over the past few years, my experience with the Superenduro race championship has allowed me to discover fantastic locations all over Italy. I realized that there are some many great locations I would have never seen without attending all the races.
Last year, I joined a trip to one of the famous locations for biking in Italy that a foreign friend had organized. Everybody was totally focused on riding all day long and nobody bothered to organize an authentic, locally run hotel or a dinner at a proper Italian restaurant. Like almost everyone else, I like to show people the best of my country; being passionate about cycling and food pushes it one step forward.
After some inspired discussions with a friend of mine, we decided to come up with a tour that provides an opportunity to fully experience the best parts that Northern Italy has to offer. The main goals were to ride some of Italy’s best kept trail secrets while at the same time dining at great traditional restaurants. From my time racing, I was still in contact with many riders from different parts of Italy. After some emails, several phone calls and about a thousand short messages later, we had a rough plan.
What’s next? Go to Italy, find great trails and try the best restaurants and hotels. Easy, right? Our idea was pretty clear but it was not that simple to put together a good mix of all the things we wanted to have.
Testing everything was a lot of hard work. We spent almost one month planning everything, riding trails, and testing restaurants and hotels! Eventually, after having gotten lost in many different parts of Italy, having slept in some strange hotels and sampled some odd flavors, we were rewarded with an amazing package! The result: one week of pure joy, new trails, great food spanning three regions in Italy.

Mostly unknown single trails along with some of the best cuisine that Italy has to offer we must call it EATALIA. This is exactly what I would do if an old friend from abroad came to visit and asked me to ride.

The guiding company Alpine Trails offers this trip now as part of their off season program. We will be supporting the trip in order to ensure the best possible quality of dining, learning proper Italian slang and experiencing some relaxed Mediterranean vibes. Through the collaboration with local riders and where available, local guiding companies, Alpine Trails wanted to make sure that you will get to ride the best trails in every location. See you in EATALIA.”
Check out EATALIA on the Alpine Trails website!
Words: Luigi Mattei Photos: Luigi Mattei & Martin Bütler
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