[caption id="attachment_770" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Mr. Marcellino surprised his two students on the train[/caption]Text by Sabrina Winter Michi and Eric are excited. They have around 800 kilometers ahead of them - a distance as long as from Hamburg to Munich. The two students want to cover it by mountain bike. Both are spending a semester abroad in the Italian city of Padova. But instead of traveling there by car or train, the Zittau students are pedaling across the Alps by bike. The two are taking an Italian course in their first semester. Their lecturer Cristiano Marcellino is very sporty and gets them excited about mountain biking. They train with him and later join the mountain bike group at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. They train a lot and take part in competitions. When Eric and Michi decide to learn more Italian, Michi says: "Come on Eric, let's go to Italy by bike!" They weren't entirely serious, but the initial crazy idea became a reality.Michi's real name is Michelle Zuischko. The 22-year-old is studying ecology and environmental protection with a technical focus at the HSZG - just like her best friend Eric Gutte. In Italian, they are called sieamici

per la pelle,

which means

"great friends" or "friends for life."

Michi and Eric will be spending a semester abroad in Padova from September. It is their 5th semester and the first in which they are not studying in Zittau. Michi even wants to stay in Italy for a whole year and do her internship semester there. Eric will initially stay for six months and then move on, and the friends have been planning their trip through the Alps for about a month. It starts in the town of Villingen-Schwenningen in the south of Baden-Württemberg. They cycle along Lake Constance to Oberstdorf and then into the Austrian Alps - always heading south. Eventually they reach the Italian Alps, ride to Bolzano, then to Lake Garda and finally to Padova, where their university is called "Università degli studi di Padova". Michi and Eric cover a total of 7,000 meters of altitude on their way. The friends have planned around two weeks for the trip. "Maybe we'll be super fast on the way," says Michi optimistically. Together with the HSZG mountain bike group, they have prepared for the 800-kilometer tour. Eric explains: "At first, we did short tours and trained a lot with the group. Then we wanted to set ourselves a mammoth goal." Continuous training was important for this. Michi and Eric rode their mountain bikes at least twice a week. But they don't describe themselves as professional cyclists: "We are average amateur athletes." Their adventure begins on September 3. That's when the Amici start in Villingen-Schwenningen. So far, only the first overnight stay has been booked. The rest will be decided spontaneously along the way. The Zittau students are looking forward to their trip and are grateful that they will be able to do everything as they had imagined. The mountain bike group in particular has always given them tips and their Italian lecturer Cristiano Macellino and Ms Ludwig from the International Office have also helped them a lot. Eric says: "Italy, the Alps and mountain biking - they just go together. That's how a project like this comes about."We will stay in touch with Michi and Eric. A sequel will follow!Here are a few first impressions of the tour:http://hinundweg.blog.hszg.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/HSZG_MTB_Italien-6.jpeg Supported by: