Cycling in Italy

I bought a bike in Italy. It is a 12 speed (2 front 6 rear) road bike. The guy I bought it from worked at a small shop on the Oltrarno, and he spoke little to no english. It made for fun communication fun! He said the year on the bike was 1980. The frame is aluminum, which is substantially lighter than the steel bike I have back home. When I was looking for a bike to acquire here, I had two things in mind:
1) Allow for exploration of the Toscana countryside around Firenze. Most bikes in the city are made for use in the city, which isn't ideal for what I want, so when I found this road bike, it was perfect. Although I do look slightly silly riding on Florence's bumpy stone streets with a bike with racing geometry...
2) Not get stolen. One of the KSU people I met here bought a Bianchi city bike and it was stolen overnight. That horrible fact had me paranoid that I was wasting my money, if it were to be stolen. This bike worked because of the golden-brown color, slight rust, worn saddle, tires, and bar grips. Despite the different style than the typical city bike, this is relatively inconspicuous on a large bike rack. Plus there are security cameras near the rack I park it at, and the chain lock's weight feels like it is at least half the weight of the frame itself. And for extra insurance, I named the bike "Il Ladro" which translated to "The Thief".

Florence is a fantastic city for pedestrians. Everything one could ever need and more is easily within walking distance. But on bike, I always follow vehicular traffic patterns, just out of common sense. And in Firenze, the traffic patterns make absolutely no sense! When streets were adapted for car use, whoever designed the one way traffic flow system, deserves a good spanking. On Friday, for example, I wanted to go north of town. No entry on the northbound road. I turn west a block, and my only option off that road is to go south. So then I pick up another westbound road. See another road. Southbound. Then when I finally turn north, it arbitrarily stops and redirects us in some other direction. It just doesn't make sense at all...
Thankfully once I make it out of the city, Italy offers some of the best and most beautiful roads imaginable!

My goal on Friday was to find an ancient Roman amphitheatre my studio professor mentioned in class. The problem was, it's location in the town of Fiesole, on top of a mountain. Halfway to the top was this statue of a road cyclist, pointing in the direction up the mountain, as if encouraging me to keep going. I had to stop and pose for a photo... As I was posing a car pulled on to the side of the road where the statue was. An old Italian guy got out. (spoke no english of course.) We exchanged "Ciao"s. And the "Non parlo italiano..." Asked if I spoke it a little bit (using hand motions.) I replied "eh.. Si!" He first asked if I was German, then American. "Si, United States. Io da Firenze. Studio a quattro mesi. Architecttura." We made remarks about my bike "bici da corsa", riding up the hill, to Fiesole to see the Roman amphitheatre.  I think he told me how far it was. Then he explained he actually pulled over to find his dog. "Il cane, woof woof!" (there was a dog barking near the area. I said goodbye to the fellow, then continued on my way.

Here I finally arrived at Fiesole, but I wasn't sure exactly where the amphitheatre was. But I saw a sign for a church up a stone alley, and I figured it would have a good view of Firenze.

As I approached the top, I saw some familiar faces, these lovely people from studio! They were there day trippin' at Fiesole (by bus) and I just happened to cross paths with them on my biking adventure!

I rode up all the way from that city behind me!

the view from the top was incredible. Florence in the valley, surrounded my the countryside of vineyards and villas, surrounded by mountains, the low winter sun hanging just above. The elevation difference between here and Florence is 900 ft, or in yinzer, abaht double the height of Mt. Warshington.

This photo looks back down the stone path to Fiesole.

A little bit further up was a Franciscan church. Quite small. Someone was playing the organ when we walked in. Off to the side was this cloister that led to a museum which included Asian, Egyptian, and Christian artifacts.

Back down at the view, below us was this really strange statue.

This was the path to the amphitheatre and ruins. Unfortunately the whole thing closed down at 2pm. I was holding the camera over the railing.

Although the ride up was difficult, I was rewarded by the ride down. The air was moving so fast around my glasses, making my eyes water. Riding down a mountain took significant concentration and attention to detail. I felt like any mistake could lead to a big ouchy kamowchie. But it was certainly a thrill, rushing downhill like a rollercoaster past picturesque Italian scenery.

The above image is a graffiti filled tunnel that goes under a busy boulevard on the north side of Florence.

The next day, Saturday, I committed a mortal sin, and left the memory card in my computer... I guess I'll talk a bit anyways. I rode south into the sun, with a goal of finding a castle-like monastery in the town of Galluzzo. I found it but couldn't get inside. So I rode around, and went up another mountain. This one was a bit farther away from the city and not quite as high. But the ride up was still "fun", the view still incredible, and the ride down was more FUN! Back in the town, I had to go around the block due to one way streets. And that was where the game called "Give Walt a bike in a foreign country" gets fun. I took a wrong turn and got lost. The path took me through some really beautiful country roads, and I had only a sense of direction to get home. After zigzaggeting the Tuscan back roads for about half an hour or so, the Arno river appeared, in a spot right near the city.

Successful two rides in two days!