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Bologna

Typical scene in Bologna, cyclists rolling by an outdoor restaurant seating zone where there might have been parking... very civilized!

I had my first visit to Bologna, staying with Gaia Guiliani, a charming post-colonialist, feminist, radical academic and activist. She and her friend Ghiada, along with some assistance from my Irish friend Alan Toner, provided the simultaneous translation for a Nowtopia reading at the Modo Infoshop in the city center on Monday night. A big crowd of 40+ jammed into a small space, more suitable for about 10-15, and we did a version of my usual presentation, but given the time it takes to translate everything, by the time we were done, it had been 2.5 hours! So even though I’d cut down the main parts of the Talk by half, it still was way too long. Now I’m going to Milan to do another bookshop tonight, Utopia Bookstore, and I’m planning to forego all reading and just do an improvised presentation. Having done the other one so many times, it will be easy enough, but of course I always worry about losing coherence.

Good graffiti in various parts of Bologna's center.

Anyway, there was a good discussion after the Talk, and as often happens, I don’t remember well all the points raised. (Might have something to do with all the wine and grappa we downed until the wee hours following the presentation!) Alan questioned me on two important points: where did I stand on the critique neo-Malthusianism, since the common attitude growing among enviros and others in the U.S. and parts of Europe is to say that China, India and other newly modernizing countries must be restrained from the over-exploitation of resources and the hyper-production of CO2 and a wide range of pollutants. The other issue he brought up dovetailed with comments I received in Stockholm last December, and from some friends and family at home, wondering how the Nowtopian initiatives contribute to a sharper level of political contestation (if they do at all), or if they aren’t a new paradigm of cooptation and integration?

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September 30th, 2010 | Category: History, My Writings and Appearances, Travel report | Leave a comment

Ciclomundi

Saturday September 26 Panel: "Bicycling in a Time of Crisis" l-r David Walthall, myself, Claudio Sabelli Fioretti, Tito Boeri.

Ediciclo Editore is a relatively small Italian publisher focused on bicycling and travel books. They invited me to their 3rd annual “Ciclomundi Festival Nazional  del Viaggio in Bicicletta” (CycleWorld National Festival of Bicycle Travel) Sept. 24-26 in Siena, a fantastically beautiful small city in Tuscany. I had a great time. I had some trepidation before arriving, worrying that I would find myself in a gathering of folks entirely focused on high-end bicycle gear, tourism, etc., but the spirit and tone of the Festival was much broader and quite inclusive. My “gang” from Rome was in the house too, representing a few different DIY bikeshops that have sprung up there in the past few years (ciclofficine is the Italian name). Paolo Rotafixa, with whom I stayed in 2008, shared a Sunday morning panel with me, along with four others, and we were both very impressed by the presentations. He leaned over to me at one point and said it was the best panel he’d ever been on or even heard regarding a bicycle discussion…

The events began on Friday night with a beautiful poetic and musical presentation on the 19th century globe-trotting cyclists who are the direct spiritual ancestors of this Festival’s participants. It was all in Italian which I can only get a small percentage of, but the historic images told a great deal of the story, especially since I wrote about 19th century cycling in San Francisco quite recently. Alberto Fiorin, one of the editors of Ediciclo, was the moderator and conductor who knit together the three eloquent speakers while an accordion, bass, and guitar would strum quietly behind them, occasionally bursting forth into boisterous song to take the lead. (Alberto also met me in Rome and accompanied me to Siena, much to my pleasure and gratitude.)

The Romans had their tallbikes and other zany vehicles, and brought them out throughout the weekend to regale the thousands of tourists gawking at the stunning Duomo from the surrounding piazza. I got to take a spin too, as did Federico, a sharp young journalist with whom I had a stimulating, long interview on Saturday. Here we are taking our turns”¦

Federico Petroni

Touring the Piazza del Duomo in Siena the right way!

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September 28th, 2010 | Category: My Writings and Appearances, Travel report, Work and The Economy | One comment

Siena, A Visible Invisible City!

Siena prides itself on being descended from the son of Romulus, one of the babies suckling at the she-wolf in the ubiquitous statues around town. This is on the wall near the train station.

Here's the main cathedral (the Duomo) in Siena, with very late afternoon sun making it glow.

View norhward from Torre La Mangia, overlooking the main plaza, Piazza del Campo.

I arrived midday on Thursday before the Ciclomundi Conference started on Friday night. That gave me some hours to try to overcome my horrendous jet-lag, and also to be an unabashed tourist in this stunning Tuscan city, in addition to squeezing in a 40-kilometer ride in the vicinity of Gaiole in Chianti, a small village in that famous wine-making region.

I was in Siena once before, so I knew how incredibly beautiful it is, but having just spent almost four days here I have gained a much greater appreciation for its texture and nuances. One of my favorite things about it, a feature it shares with most cities in this part of Italy, is the way the flow of city life is shaped by the geography on which the city was built. Years ago we published an hilarious article in Processed World called Dear Del Monte but it was also a brilliant piece in the way the author, Mark Leger, wove together the absurdity of working in the complaint department at the big food company with a deeper rumination on land-use, community, family, and eating habits. He explained how ridiculous it was that in California housing was sprawling over prime farm lands, while in a sensible and much older settled place like Tuscany in Italy, the towns were built on the hilltops to leave the farmland open for food production. Sure enough, Siena fits that description perfectly, the centuries-old part of the city sitting atop a series of hills and ridges.  Here are some photos of the streets that are far from a grid, but just naturally lead the walker from one plaza to another, along the busy commercial streets. The shops run the gamut from upscale international brands to local cutlery and hat shops, tourist junk to pizza and ice cream”¦ in other words, Siena is pretty normal amidst the stunning architecture and ancient rhythms of urban movement.

Arches beckon at every turn.

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September 26th, 2010 | Category: History, Nature and Me, Public Space, Travel report | 2 comments
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