⏱️ 02:49   ⇄33.7km   ⌀11.6km/h   ↗357m   ↘363m

The Eroica is a bicycle ride dedicated to vintage bicycles (pre-1987) and held in Tuscany on the first Sunday in October. I have known about it for a while, and encountered it accidentally last year. This year, back near Buonconvento with The Squeez...

The kind of mad jaunt that appeals to me is an organised ride, on my Brompton, with a bunch of Italian Brompton enthusiasts, to the Brompton World Championships in Mestre, on the mainland just next to Venice. And I did just that two weekends ago.¹

The Italian attitude to rules and regulations -- that they exist only for other people -- is one of the most maddening things about living here; except, of course, when it works for you.

It is always such a relief when the hotel room safe not only opens on the dimly remembered code but also still contains everything you put in it on arrival. I do sometimes wonder, though, what the point is. I suppose to make it more difficult to steal things. Doh! But every place I've ever stayed sp...

It was pure good fortune that I read Victor Mair's guest post over at Language Log a couple of days ago. In it, Mair treats with loving respect the details of a sign seen at Silk Street Market in Beijing. The sign lists the Recommended Words and Forbidden Words for the benefit of the salesgirls at...