NYT: Forget the Vespa: Making Your 2 Wheels a Bike in Rome

Artemisia said:

Here's a standard touristy article in today's New York Times about being
a cyclo-tourist in Rome. Some useful links. Sounds like fun, especially
the Via Appia on Sundays when it's closed to traffic.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/travel/23explorer.html

Love it!

"In Trastevere, the lively neighborhood west of the river, most alleys
are open only to pedestrians and bicyclists. Zooming around the outdoor
cafes and stalls was a bit like flying through the trench of the Death
Star, only with the scent of glorious food mingling in the air."

Imagine the apoplexy of the Daily Mail readers if this were to happen
anywhere nice in Britain.

Marc Brett said:

Artemisia said:

Here's a standard touristy article in today's New York Times about being
a cyclo-tourist in Rome. Some useful links. Sounds like fun, especially
the Via Appia on Sundays when it's closed to traffic.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/travel/23explorer.html

Love it!

"In Trastevere, the lively neighborhood west of the river, most alleys
are open only to pedestrians and bicyclists. Zooming around the outdoor
cafes and stalls was a bit like flying through the trench of the Death
Star, only with the scent of glorious food mingling in the air."

Imagine the apoplexy of the Daily Mail readers if this were to happen
anywhere nice in Britain.

yup though i didn't see many bikes at all at least in central rome, when
i was there a few weekends back.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

"Roger Merriman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

yup though i didn't see many bikes at all at least in central rome, when
i was there a few weekends back.

We only actually rode in a bit of Rome (to the Vatican from the outskirts),
but it seemed pretty similar to Florence in traffic style - thousands of
scooters at a traffic-light grand prix, being expected to take any gap there
is, and people actually being generally observant. Quite fun taking one of
the big roundabouts :-) Florence had quite a few cyclists of the non-lyrca
variety, Rome had some.

cheers,
clive

Clive George said:

"Roger Merriman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

yup though i didn't see many bikes at all at least in central rome, when
i was there a few weekends back.

We only actually rode in a bit of Rome (to the Vatican from the outskirts),
but it seemed pretty similar to Florence in traffic style - thousands of
scooters at a traffic-light grand prix, being expected to take any gap there
is, and people actually being generally observant. Quite fun taking one of
the big roundabouts :-) Florence had quite a few cyclists of the non-lyrca
variety, Rome had some.

cheers,
clive

i didn't see any lyrca cyclist as you where, more old sit up and beg
types. lots of the roads where cobbled which probably would put off
ultra thin tires etc.

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com