A Few Asides

Italian drivers; they don’t like to limit themselves to one lane here, and on the interstate, they will drift from one lane to another willy nilly; no signal, no indicating, nothing.

Sometimes they change lanes, sometimes they don’t; often they just drive half in one lane, half in another, like it’s just too much effort to chose one lane and stay in it.

The siesta: no joke here. Every shop in these small towns except for the occasional café, is closed from 1pm to 3pm, in some towns until 4pm. Understandable for towns where in the summer it is baking hot in the afternoons. Hard to get used to for someone who is from a place where everything is open almost all the time. But it forces you to be quiet, to be still, to slow down.

Translations: Steve picked up a cycling brochure at the hotel which details different bike routes in the area. It is a wonderful document, since it was so clearly written in Italian and then fed directly into Google Translate or some other translation site.

Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

The title: “Lands of the Greeny Heart of Italy, by Bicycle. “ The mere fact that the whole brochure was, in fact, lovingly written by the bicycle itself just warms my greeny heart.

Useful suggestion: “…those, who go by bike only occasionally will avoid the routes more challenging, because choosing too hard routes for their preparation can lead to excessive stress, risk, and thus to transform a day of fun in a big and disagreeable fatigue.” Ain’t that the truth!

Clothing: “To address the easier routes not need a technical, but may be enough a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, which must be added to the helmet. However, especially for those who intend to stay several hours in the saddle, use cycling shorts is a good rule, since, the special back, in which they have made, make more convenient and more pleasant ride.” Good point.

What to Bring: “…those who rides for fun or making a holiday by bike, certainly prefers to stop at a bar, or in a tavern; the important thing, it is not to exaggerate, because then we still ride to return to the starting point.” You got that? Stop at a bar, or a tavern, just DO NOT exaggerate. Many a life has been lost that way.

I do love Italy.