“If your life were a work of art, would you go and see it?” It’s the motivation that drove it Nicolò Guarrera, Vicenza area of Malo, starting on Sunday 9 August 2020 to make a dream come true: go around the world on foot. In 1,862 days he crossed 4 continents and traveled over 35 thousand kilometres, accompanied by Ezio, «a trekking stroller, the backpack in which I carry everything I need» such as a tent, a few changes and supplies, «the solution to the hundreds of kilometers of emptiness in the deserts of Latin America and Australia», weighing 12 kilos but capable of carrying up to 50 on 3 wheels. He tells it in the volume With your feet on the ground. Around the world one step at a timejust published by Sonzogno (pp. 432, €19).
Beyond the solo undertaking, two aspects of the story are striking: the internal journey marked by physical steps and the fact that the individual experience has gradually become “a collective work” which goes beyond numbers to become encounters, faces, relationships.
«The most beautiful journey, in my opinion, is returning to where you had a good time», writes Nicolò, born in 1993, with a three-year degree in Business Economics in Verona, followed by a master’s degree in Trade marketing and Commercial Strategies at the University of Parma, and work experience in Milan in chocolate marketing.
“If it is true that I have left many pieces of my heart around the world, just as many have remained anchored at home.” During the long journey that lasted over 5 years, concluded on 12 September 2025, «177 people have opened their doors to me, 809 have given me a hot meal, a quiet night or a pair of shoesand more than a thousand those who, for an instant or a few days, shared the path with me and Ezio. You are proof that the human race, for the vast majority, is made up of good and kind souls”, also found in Scout groups, parishes, pastoral units. Not just hospitality, however: many wanted to share a piece of the road with Nicolò.
«The trip around the world wasn’t just mine or Ezio’s, but all of them’s: for dozens of people it had made sense, they had made it their own and were as passionate about it as I was. We had created a Camino de Santiago of our own, unrepeatable and therefore unique.”
From this perspective, “the last month has been among the most full of emotions, so much so that it made me reconsider the entire journey in the light of sharing, even before discovery”, points out the author.
In numbers, 47 million steps, 36,146 kilometres, 24 pairs of shoes to go from Veneto to South America, from Tierra del Fuego to Australia, from India to the Middle East until the long climb back home. Discovering an imperfect world which, however, slows down and often does not conceive of life as a dilemma to be resolved.
Known on social media since 2020 by the nickname “Pieroad” (he has 461 thousand followers on Instagram and over 46 thousand on Facebook), Guarrera shared his journey trying to communicate a more human world. A story that partly merged into the book, which he started writing in 2022 while he had already been traveling for two years. But the author is keen to explain the genesis of the project, which started on 12 May 2018: «In the living room of a student apartment in Parma, a twenty-three-year-old was connecting dots on an imaginary globe».
The preparation is long and meticulous: «It took months to travel around the world in this way, from home, writing to dozens of people, reading books, watching documentaries and studying distances, visas, borders, seasons, refueling points, altitude profiles and interesting places to stop. As I wove the plot and the years passed, the most important thing happened: the idea took root. When I looked in front of me I saw nothing but the path, a tireless sequence of steps that continued without end.».
With an unshakable determination: «I had consciously decided that I would leave to travel around the world on foot; and unconsciously I had eliminated the alternatives that could have distracted me.”
