At 4pm on June 1st 2008, a poet weighing upwards of 100 kilos and a petite Russian photographer decided to set off from Leiden on their bikes, with the idea of reaching Rome. They hadn’t trained, he was particularly unfit and they weren’t well-prepared, or any kind of prepared. She was riding a yellow mountainbike, the colour yellow being the main factor, and he’d bought a second-hand Batavus for @euro@95 from the Turkish repairman at the corner. A change of clothing, water and her heavy bike chain were in his rucksack.

Forty-one days and 2600 kilometres later they arrived in the Campo dei Fiori at the heart of the Eternal City. This book is the account of that journey in words and images. A journey via Zoeterwoude-Dorp, Tilburg, Marseille, Genua and Pisa, over hills, mountains and valleys, via wine cellars and truckers caffs, carparks and motorways, seaside resorts and wild boar-infested forests – a journey that changed their lives and transformed their relationship.