“It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so I was looking for a raincoat. My poncho got torn, I couldn’t get a new one, so I thought what to do with it. I ended up buying a garbage bag, cut a hole for my head – and that’s it,” begins Nico Moro’s narration. It’s punk, freestyle, but he says it works. As was his whole expedition.
When asked what he brings with him, he answers somewhat as expected: mainly a good mood. “It’s the alpha and omega of everything,” says the twenty-six-year-old man with Czech and Italian roots, specifically from the Veneto region. The origin is one of the main reasons why he set out on the journey. At the same time, he wants to honor the memory of his grandmother, who died while he was abroad, by traveling.
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“I’ve been driving that route all my life, to Italy to see my family. I thought I’d like to walk it one day. To show people that almost anyone could do it – it’s all about the head. Nothing else,” he explains. The moment this year’s Winter Olympics fell to Milan, he was clear.
He walks in shoes hand-sewn by his father, a lifelong shoemaker, and plans the route as he goes. Sometimes he walks along winding paths, other times in an orange reflective vest along the road. “I’m not an athlete. I’m an ordinary guy with extraordinary dreams who tries to motivate people to live too. To light up the world at least a little.”
Thanks for the challenging moments
He started his journey from Třebíč on January 6. He arrived in Trento, Italy, before the weekend. After more than six hundred and seventy kilometers. He has passed one of his main milestones, he is about three quarters of the way there. “Today’s stage went faster than I expected. When the weather is good, the kilometers disappear under your feet in a completely different way,” he describes.
But there is no time to rest, he still has more than two hundred kilometers to Milan. To make it to the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Friday, February 6, he must walk at least 28 kilometers each day. According to him, the hardest part is behind him. The body is already running in “robot” mode, and the next kilometers will be mainly about the head. “But anything can happen,” he adds.
He has already experienced several extreme situations. The fourth day of the trip was the most difficult so far: minus sixteen degrees, snowdrops, walking along the road in heavy traffic between cars honking. Soaked and frozen, he felt that there were not 900 kilometers ahead of him, but five thousand. “Everything was moving away from me. I was at the beginning and thought to myself, if it’s going to be like this every day, maybe I’ll finish sometime in April,” he recalls.
Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo
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Date and venue: February 6 – 22, Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo (competitions start already on the 4th)
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Official site: www.olympics.com/ioc/milano-cortina-2026
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Estimated number of athletes: roughly 2,900 from 92 countries
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Number of disciplines: 116
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Number of sports fields: 13 in four areas (indoor sports in Milan, downhill skiing, biathlon, curling, bobsleigh and luge in and around Cortina, downhill skiing, snowboarding and acrobatic skiing in Valtellina, classic skiing in Val di Fiemme) plus stadiums in Milan (San Siro) and Verona for the opening and closing ceremonies
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Mascot: food Tina
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Estimated budget: approximately 5.2 billion euros (about 126 billion crowns), of which 1.7 billion euros (over 40 billion crowns) for the organization of the Games and 3.5 billion euros (over 85 billion crowns) for sports venues and infrastructure
In retrospect, he is grateful for these moments. It is thanks to them that he can enjoy the joy of overcoming them. “I appreciate that it’s hard and that I didn’t give up. If everything was always simple and beautiful, it wouldn’t make sense,” he says. According to him, giving up was never an option. “I went into it thinking I was going to get away with it. There’s no getting away from it.”
One tattoo from each country
This is not Nico’s first long-distance march. He has already completed the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and walked three thousand kilometers from Nepal to Armenia in 189 days. From each country, in addition to memories, they also take a small souvenir – a tattoo. This is also related to his next dream: he wants to become the first person in the world to have tattoos from all countries of the world. He has fourteen so far.
The last one was added in Salzburg – the Red Bull logo. “Because that’s where Red Bull comes from. I did a Facebook poll about it. It’s a symbol of energy and extreme challenges,” he explains. In Milan, he would like to have the inscription Milano Cortina 2026 and the Olympic rings tattooed.
More than twenty thousand people follow Nic’s journey on Instagram. In addition to the occasional criticism, it is mainly met with significant support. It was during the fourth day of the crisis that fans came to him, invited him to a meatloaf in a bun, a cappuccino and paid for his accommodation. “Sometimes people are waiting for me at the signs when I get there,” he says.
And what is he most looking forward to when he reaches his destination? He has a clear plan. He meets his girlfriend at the Duomo cathedral and together they go to Milan’s San Siro stadium. And then most importantly – the opening ceremony. “I want to see him. That will be my victory. Everything else will be just a bonus.”
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