He'd never slept in a tent, or considered himself a cyclist before he came to Australia, but now Francesco Bassi, 26, is well-seasoned in both.
Lacking experience or deep preparation, Bassi's journey is inspired by a film, 'Into The Wild', with its themes of freedom, solitude, nature and the friendships born along the way.
Hailing from the province of Mantua, Italy, Bassi has been in Australia for almost three months and now his home, as he crosses the deserts or coastal roads of the continent, has become his tent and the houses of kind strangers.
Following the example of Christopher McCandless, whose life was depicted in the film directed by Sean Penn, Bassi is in his own way, an extreme traveler.
"I flew from Milan to Darwin on April 29," he tells SBS Italian. "I arrived in Darwin and had no other choice ... I had to go into the desert on my bicycle."
After 12 days spent in the capital of the Northern Territory, settling in and fighting jet-lag, he started his journey.
"I was absolutely not prepared for anything, I had not prepared the trip, I didn't even know where to start," he says. "I only knew that the road was all straight so I couldn't go wrong."
Of course, ample water and shelter is needed for a journey through any Australian desert.
After the first 60 kilometres from Darwin to Alice Springs he stopped and set up his tent, the first time he ever slept in one.
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When he was 150 kilometres north of Alice Springs, the weather changed and Bassi says he "savoured" the desert's temperature change, where days are hot and temperatures dip close to zero at night.Then he rode to Adelaide.
From the heat of the desert to the frequent rains of the South Australian winter, which accompanied him into Victoria.
Then Melbourne, for a warm bed and some rest.
"After Alice Springs I couldn't take a shower for 15 days because it was impossible, you couldn't find anything. I looked terrible and a gentleman saw me and said to me, 'When you arrive in Melbourne, you can stay at mine for as long as you want. And I stayed with him for a week.'"
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That is an aspect of Bassi's journey that has particularly touched him: the kind people he met along the way.
The man from Melbourne was just one of many, who he'd never met before, that helped him on his way.
At one point people hosted him every night, especially on the cold and rainy days between Adelaide and Melbourne.
"I rediscovered the love of people towards me. Someone who gives you something just to make you feel better, not because they want something in return, because I could not give anything in return. I gave a lady my Italian coffee moka pot, and that was all I had."
After Melbourne, Bassi traveled to Sydney, where he spoke to SBS Italian, and left immediately after to continue his journey towards Brisbane.
There in Brisbane lives an old friend from Bassi's hometown - who has not seen him for 10 years. He will stay in Queensland for a few months looking for work to afford the next leg of his journey: New Zealand.
Asked whether he will go home after New Zealand, he sighs:
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"No, it won't be time to go home. My dream is to fly to Singapore and travel, with my bike, through all of Asia [...] and Eastern Europe and arrive right in front of my house, in Italy."
According to Bassi's forecast, that should happen in a year and eight months.
But why is he doing this? The film's in inspiration, of course, but not his only reason.
"You either do something like this now or you will never do it," says Bassi, who explains the decision to travel by bike was taken after he traveled first by train, then by car to Lapland, towards North Cape in Scandanavia.
He remembers seeing two girls traveling by bicycle and them being happy "living their life in a simple way". He says he felt "trapped and not really open to the world" in his rental car.
Bassi says his journey has taught him some lessons.
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"In the desert I understood what the word 'silence' means. This journey has made me rediscover what the word 'love' means. And that distance is just in your mind."
Asked whether he has been tempted to give up in the most difficult moments, Bassi says the beginning of the journey was the most daunting.
Upon his arrival in Darwin all his motivations, which he had explained to his loved ones over and over again, suddenly vanished and he thought about going home.
Luckily for him, someone back in Italy reminded him why he was in Australia.
"It was my mother who supported me so much during these first three days and reminded me of all the things that I had explained to her at home about this journey."
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