Lone Travellers

Trust me, you’ll be fine.

I’ve cycled across Europe alone and had no difficulties with random lunatics or wandering psycopaths. The fact is, you’re no more at risk on your bike in Italy, France or elsewhere in western Europe than you would in the streets of London.

The most likely thing you’ll face (though I never have) is petty pilfering, and I frequently leave my panniers on my bike whilst nipping into a cathedral or something. 

So, my advice:

• Lock up your bike with a decent lock – or three. Get a long baggage lock, which goes right around your panniers. It may not stop a thief, but it could put off an opportunistic riffling through your baggage whilst you are visiting something. 

• Make sure your bike is kept somewhere locked under cover overnight if possible – check if your insurance specifies this. (Bear in mind that your bike will become like a very good friend. You may very well find you are only truly happy when it ‘sleeps’ in the room with you.) 

• Keep all valuables with you in your bar bag. If thieves really want your smelly underwear, they must be very desperate. 

• Get a combination lock. You are going to be popping into boulangeries and pasticcericia and getting out keys is a bore, so you’ll stop doing it. A combination lock alone isn’t enough if you’ll be a while, but it does stop the bike being swiped by an opportunist as you buy bomb alone. 

• Buy a matt black bike. Best advice I was ever given. ‘Stealth’ bike got its name because it doesn’t get noticed amidst its neon yellow Bianchi breathren. 

Lone women

Don’t worry. You too will be fine, unless you are very unlucky. The biggest issue you’ll probably have is getting time alone, because random nice strangers will almost certainly want to talk to you, shake your hand and maybe invite you to dinner. 999/1000 will be great, and reinforce the sense that the world is full of generous, warm and hospitable people. Use your instincts to weed out the rare 1/1000.

As a contingency plan, if it helps, you may want to invent a tall, dark and handsome companion who is cycling just ahead of you or whom you’re meeting in the next village. I always wear a ring on my ‘wedding’ finger – helps to be officially unavailable, especially in Italy. Nonetheless, the worst I have encountered has been vaguely amorous old men who invited me to kiss them (a polite no usually deals with that situation) and for a lot of staring and maybe car horn hooting, which was certainly worse in southern Italy. But don’t believe what the northern Italians say about southern Italy being a den of thieves and mafia assassins (I was warned I was in peril of my life on many occasions by northerners when they heard I was going beyond Lazio). There is very little chance Ricardo Turpin is going to accost you on the roads of Apulia, whatever the 2008 Blue Guide might warn you.

If you’re new to lone cycling, then, at the risk of offending any Italians, I would recommend France. You can expect gallantry, gentle flirtation, and lots and lots of compliments about being Joan of Arc. Frankly, I love cycling in France. It’s a marvellous place.