Celebrating Your 50th Birthday on Your Bike (Italian Style)

Happy Birthday! Time to plan the most memorable birthday ever because:

“Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to Great Places!

You’re off and away!” —Dr. Seuss

Do you have a big birthday coming up? Are you anxious about how to make it absolutely unforgettable, unique and as momentous as this very special day truly is?

I get it. I was there. No birthday in my life ever freaked me out like turning 50. Thirty was cool. Forty was fine, but 50, no way, not me, that just seemed way too far from the 23 year-old I felt inside.

Six months before my big FIVE-O   I realized I had to plan something special since my family and friends were already scheming to throw me a big party: No, no, not that. Please!

Just the image of all those candles, trite “turning 50” cards and what would have probably been a lot platitudes and clean-up work for me (for sure), told me I had to do it my way, even though I was not sure what my way was.
Not that I didn’t want to announce this big day to the world (well actually I did NOT), but I did want to follow MY passion and do what I love most: to bicycle, to take pictures, to be adventurous, to meet new people, to sleep under the stars and to get away from it all to reflect, alla grande!  Finally I wanted this FIVE-O experience to be a metaphor for the next phase of my life. It had to be new, big, open, vast and a challenge.

Then the calling came: I would mountain bike around the rim of the Grand Canyon with my friend Ashley Korenblat’s fantastic company, Western Spirit.  I would live roughly and camp nightly under the stars with a group of eight people I had never met in my life. Perfect!

Riding along the ridge of the 7^th Wonder of the World and gazing out at the millions of years of our earth’s history was quite humbling. While watching the canyon’s edges melt into the horizon one glorious afternoon the metaphor of layers emerged. One night, before sleeping under the stars, I wrote:
“Life has slowed down and opened up; there is space now between the layers in my brain to reflect on the layers of my life.  Layers that are squeezed and transformed by the weight of each passing day. Layers of friends, experiences, countless views of places that each find their way into my heart. How I feel connected to each layer yet at the same time how they blend together into my own personal geography.”

The mountain bike trip, as I expected, was outstanding, however half the fun was the planning and the anticipation of adventuring alone to a place I had always dreamed of, on a day I was the most anxious about.
So now it’s your turn. Is your 50^th birthday right around the corner? What do you have planned for this BIG “milestone” day?  Will you go hide in a cave?  That’s totally acceptable, but if you are on Facebook—surprise, surprise– all of your contemporaries are going to spill the beans in one endless scratching scroll of:  “It’s your day old friend, how does it feel to hit the big one?

How about starting where the layers began..with YOU! Where do you dream to go? What do you dream to do? Who do you dream to do it with?

How does this sound?  Rally a few of your active, travel-loving friends and sign yourselves up for the bicycle tour of your life!  I guarantee that it will be a trip that will work your thighs, be a feast of the senses, stir your soul and make your heart pound.

Sound perfect? Well I have the perfect birthday vacation gift for you!

For the past 25 years, my company Ciclismo Classico,  has been the pioneer in European Bicycle Vacations, transforming lives one active travel experience at a time.  My motto, Pedal Your Passion, perfectly fits this time of your life when Living Passionately MUST take its rightful place as your #1 LIFE priority.

A FREE BIKE VACATION  FOR YOU FROM US FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Why not gather 11 of your girlfriends together and let Ciclismo Classico give you your Special Birthday Vacation Trip for FREE!

Can’t get 11 gals? Well then, how about getting six friends or family members together? We will then give you a $1000 check to spend on Gelato, Gucci or on your beloved Girlfriends.

I can just hear you sitting under the Tuscan Sun savoring Taglietelle ai Funghi, Bruschetta and Panzanella with your own private party of BBFs toasting you while you declare: “ Today is MY day, the Brunello di Montecello is on ME ladies!”

For your 50^th birthday, kick the bucket list.  Seize this day as your new beginning, your fresh new layer.  If the Grand Canyon taught me anything, it’s that my best layers are still to be unveiled.

So will it be Tuscany? Piedmont? Sardinia? Wherever you ride with Ciclismo Classico, I guarantee that you will be renewed and transformed. Here is my Top Three List of Best Biking BA50 Birthday Ideas:

1. Assaggio Toscana: The Quintessential Tuscan Bicycle Tour for first time riders

http://www.ciclismoclassico.com/trips/bike-tour-tuscany/

2. Swept Away in Sardinia:  Melt Your Muscles and Soothe Your Soul: An Idyllic Sea and Cycling Exploration of Italy’s Exotic Island

http://www.ciclismoclassico.com/trips/bike-tour-island-sardinia/

3. The Land of Barolo and Truffles: Piedmont’s Longest Running Bike Tour—A Feast for All Your Senses

http://www.ciclismoclassico.com/trips/bike-tour-piedmont/
Oh the Places You Can Go…..just pick, where will it BE?
Can’t decide? Want to talk it through with someone who has been there: email me at lauren@ciclismoclassico.com  or call me at 617-640-4837.

Warm Regards,
Lauren Hefferon–Director and Founder
Ciclismo Classico
The Leaders in The World’s Best Bicycle Vacations since 1989
30 Marathon St.
Arlington, MA
1.800.866.7314
Cell: 617.640.4837
2014 Ciclismo Classico Brochure

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.” 

 Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin,

This is a BA50 sponsored Post

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