Anita, Emma & I spent Emma’s spring break in Italy. While there, I observed Italians and their use of bicycles in their daily lives. The rain in Pisa doesn’t deter people from using their bicycles in their daily routine. They adapt with umbrellas.
Firenze (Florence) is a very busy city. Based upon my unscientific observations, I conclude that the preferred mode of transportation (other than walking or riding the bus) is split fairly evenly between riding bicycles, riding scooters or motorcycles and driving automobiles. Each participant shares the road with each other. There are no separate lanes for human, diesel or gasoline-powered vehicles. I often noticed a singe bicyclist taking the full narrow lane (that is a narrow curb-to-curb lane) riding at her/his steady pace while automobilists patiently drove behind the cyclist - amazingly beautiful respect for others!
Wooden bicycle built from the drawings in the Atlantic Manuscript drawn by either Leonardo da Vinci or one of his pupils
The on-street bicycle parking surprised me.
My favorite observation was watching a very nicely dressed woman with her two haute culture shopping bags. She placed her shopping bags into the front basket on her bicycle, unlocked the securing chain and readied to continue her trip. Wow!
Bicycles parked outside the train station in Firenze.
Ciao!
2 comments:
I love seeing blue collar folks on bikes. Around here they seem to be the most hostile to my bike commuting so it is a nice change of pace.
How long is/was the trip?
"My favorite observation was watching a very nicely dressed woman with her two haute culture shopping bags."
She also lives in Paris! After PBP '03 Sheila and I spent a few days in Paris and we once saw this fabulously fashionable Parisienne tooling along one of the grand boulevards on a velo. Inconceiveable in Seattle or New York.
Yr Pal Dr Codfish
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