I travelled a bit through Italy recently, by bicycle. Cycling here seems either
- super sporty road cyclist
- poor people on what’s left of what used to be a bicycle
Stumble upon Lodi, Lombardy: cyclists everywhere, like dutch style: adults carelessly cycling with 2 kids and lots of luggage on a single normal city bike and without helmets. What’s so different about Lodi (or the region) that it’s so common here, but not in other Italian small or medium cities? Any Italians with answers? Thanks
Not Italian, but am there frequently and have lots of friends there:
Naturally, it depends on where you are. Some places are frequented by tourists with mobile homes, and those have a higher amount of “casual riders”.
But generally speaking, Italy is… let’s say not really bike friendly…
For example: At Lake Como, the SS 36 runs along its Eastern Coast. SS stands for “Strada Statale” which is the Italian name for highway, a road where only cars are allowed.
But! At some points the SS36 is the only road since Lake Como is sitting next to mountains, and they only dug a tunnel for the highway. This in turn leads to these parts being demoted from an SS to a regular road, meaning other modes of transport are allowed.
Which of course means you’ll find people on road bikes, without any lights, riding in an old and badly illuminated tunnel with cars zooming past them at ~130 km/h 🤡
Had the opposite experience unfortunately. Tunnels on the ligurian coast are single direction, that switches with a timetable. Just 50 km/h or so, but bikes not allowed. Oh, sure, I’ll just pedal my bike over this 9km detour over a 350 meter high mountain pass instead 🤡
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