On the right is a children's book i saved from the trash in Sicily, Huey Dewey and Louie are replaced with Qui, Quo, Qua (in Italian, Who, What, Where). I wouldn't suggest you try and learn Italian with such a book except its got this illustration of an adolescent duck checking out a naked boy with a magnifying glass.
In the middle is the note a kind lady on a train made for me to review the difficult letters and when they change pronunciation.
On the left is a promotional card for Aftermass, a feature movie I made with Joe Biel of Microcosm Publishing. It felt pretty cool to visit these places with some ideas about how we movie out bodies and also able to say a few sentences.
My obligatory tour equipment photo. Most people make amazing art from organizing their gear, some of us are just happy we bothered to actually take a photo. Tent, pad, sleeping bag, two pots and cup (never used), my father's gym bag which help all my clothes, my my fisher price medical kit toy cum bikeporn merchandise case, Bike Smut undies, condoms, DVDs, stickers, handmade bike tube laptop cozy, cable bag (via the Bicycle Film Fest 2004), projector, screen, and camping chair (also never used) all fit into my 6 bags and onto my bike.
Strangely not pictured is my Black Star Bag fannypack: $, passport, glasses and my OhShitKit: bike tools, pills, & my precious whiskey flask (thanks Sysfail, Wonderthighs and TRolf who made that possible)
Touring Italy provides a good challenge when you want to sleep. There are almost no camping sites and those are designed for motorists/RVs. However if you take some care to plan your day you can find the very infrequent accessible DL camp site.
There is a dearth of natural environment in Italy. But I did find a few critters who were still making the most of it. This night in I even heard a wild boar nearby which was, actually quite terrifying. If I was badly injured there was little chance the body would still be warm when they found me.
I found a monument to Musilini, who besides creating a fascist police state also helped the people in Orbetello by installing some sanitary features. This creepy statue was on the same hill.
here you see the water made clean by Mussolini, aka Il Duce. His nickname reminds me of The Douche which in this case is all rather fitting I suppose.
apparently there is a tradition of getting naked on a rooftop in Rome the dawn after their big annual Critical Mass ride. Thankfully I still had the necessary vestiges.
Leaving from Rome to Napoli we have a team of 4 bike punks. A Brazillian balloon street artist, a German "SuperCool!Craftsman", and a tall bike touring Italian.
The Italian Tall Touring Bike features extra wide handlebars for loading all of your weight on the front. Take extra care when parking.
for the entire North American and European bike tour this was the only time I had anyone join me. It was really excellent having a team for a bit!
The Critchella in Napoli. In the background the screams of thousands of Pompeii residents still drift around Mt Vesuvius.
Crossing Italy from the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west to the Adriatic Sea in the east put me in Pescara. There are some great bike paths in Italy which end abruptly and turn into highways.
Bike punks i had met in Milano and Rome found their way to Bologna. Here Ela works to turn bikes into the Bike Smut mise en scene. Im particularly proud of framing this picture so the step of the bike is getting pissed on.
The city wanted to expand a traffic circle meaning it would tear down a wall of the squatted social center. For some time there were clashes with police and threats. At one point Blu the street artist had made a beautiful 20-foot tall mural on the wall of XM24 that was on the chopping block. It depicts the government vs the squatters in a Lord of The Ring battle. The mural has since become so popular the city is no longer able to tear it down. A fabulous use of art.
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Signs designate the beginning and end of towns and cities which make for some pretty amusing images
So I guess they have not had enough. Padova hosted the Euro Bike Polo Championships somehow i ended on a team from Austia. We got to play former world champions Wolfgang in our 1st round .They were very skilled.Venice is a pretty amazing place. Somehow my friend Allesia and I were able to spend a whole day there for less than 20-euros. I think we may have set some sort of record. Leaving Venice I caught a train to Triste, the end of the line in Italy, where Slovenia has a tiny piece of beach property before you get into the endless beauty of the Croatian Islands. I wanted to explore them but bikes and boats are not always very convenient. So I went due east and immediately started up a +20 degree hill justting out of the Adriatic Sea.
by the time I got to the top I felt like I had accomplished a lot. I was able to avoid most brutal climbs but this was one i wouldn't be able to avoid and it was Bru-TAL! With cars screaming up and down the cobble roads at high speeds. I expected that I would have to push the bike but thankfully the double chain ring gearing was just enough
Slovenia was my favorite country in a few ways. In a way its not ideal to go there right out of Italy because that is one language they really don't want to listen to (and they all speak English pretty well) but mostly because it felt like my home state of Oregon. Its clean and polite and earnestly interested. (at least I think to think of Oregon like that) .But bike touring through the forest and smelling that pine was quite heavenly. Plus they had some interesting DIY spaces along the way
