⏱️ 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...

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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

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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.

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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...

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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...

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