via Turin: cheerful flowers

Especially with Winter Solstice around the corner, I can't help but smile whenever spotting a flowering bike basket. A reader from Turin, Italy shared this photo of a bike they pass by everyday. So seasonally unappropriated - love it!

Grazie, Simone.

via the Alps: 4 days touring

Cycling is a bit of a family affair. That's my cousin Victor who arrived last week in Venice by ferry (wearing a FTLOB Tee ♥) after crossing the Eastern Alps... Victor, who lives in Geneva, met up with his brother-in-law, who lives in Sweden, for four days of touring through Austria, a detour into Slovenia, to end in Italia! Here's their Google Maps itinerary which begins in Linz, Austria and ends in Venezia (Venice!) by ferry. While the weather forecast just before departure was dim:

it was fortunately neither prohibitive nor correct! Oh, and about the ascents...

we climbed a total of 2700m on the first day, some 1400 on the second and probably about 2000 on the third - the 4th day was flat: we were riding at 35km/h like maniacs across southern Italy. also tried to get it calculated using veloroutes.org... but it wasn't working.

A totally dreamy trip. The photos are so beautiful - makes it mighty tempting to buy an airplane ticket + bike shipping case!

off to a good start!

Entering Slovenia soon..

Arrivati in Udine! (After crossing 2 passes in Slovenia, 2000m climb. Over with the Alps!)

via Turin: think fast

With so many cities jumping on the biking bandwagon, it is always fun to see ways they are going about promoting cycling. While I didn't get a chance to visit Torin while in Italy last month, reader Simone Gallina sent over a snap shot (and video!) of one of the city's newest Metro stations and bike paths. Just so happens that in this instance the bike path leads STRAIGHT into the escalators leading down into the Metro! While this is not to say that all the bike paths in Torin require cyclists to think fast - hopefully this one will be remedied soon...

Grazie, Simone!

via Florence: sites + cycles

Piazza del Duomo

the car free Via Dei Calzaiuoli

along the Mura di Firenze - the ancient defensive walls of the city

next to the Uffizi, facing the Arno

bike path along the Arno

I have finally gotten around to tackling (umm, organizing) my photos taken in Italy last month. So, Florence, compared to fast-pace scooter-centric Rome, is a serene bicycle-mania city. It was impressive how much cycle-chic-watching could be done right in the cultural heart of the city in the Piazza Di San Giovanni, adjacent from the Duomo! Mind you this was February - so I can only imagine what it's like when the temperature is higher then 50°F/10°C. Aside from the large number of college (exchange) students in the city core, like in many European cities, there is great diversity among the ages of bicyclists. So refreshing to see!

Another remarkable thing about Florence is its progressive and young (born in 1975) Mayor, Matteo Renzi. Soon after taking office in 2009, Mayor Renzi transformed one of the most famous squares in Italy, the Piazza del Duomo, by closing it off to motorized traffic making it 100% pedestrian and bike-friendly. The last century of smog did leave a lasting impression -- the blacked facades are still totally visible on the Baptistery and Cathedral and have yet to be fully cleaned/restore. Mayor Renzi has a lot more wonderful plans for the city including many new bike lanes, more restricted traffic zones, making the city center easier for mothers and pregnant women, and is considering allowing only electric cars into the city center! If you are fluent in Italian, you can read his 100 pledges, check out his website, and social network via his Twitter and Facebook.

these two images are from flickr 
of Mayor Renzi (in the blue blazer) touring the city by bike

via Florence: one bike-centric automobile

For car owners who love their bikes above all else! Wish you could buy these decals to fit any car.

via Florence: parking space

It was so refreshing to find ample bike parking in Florence since bicycle corrals are every which way you look. Another thing that struck me in this beautiful Tuscan city is that rather then locking the rear wheel and leaning it against a building (like in Copenhagen)  bicycles would line the curb and be kept upright by having the pedal like so along the narrow sidewalks and streets in center city...

Kind of can't believe I got used to riding on these stone slab streets which make for a bumpy ride - funny to think that we New Yorkers complain about having to deal with pot holes.

via Roma: Nestlé's cycle-centric packaging

Such retro '80s stylin. Nestlé Latte Intero Concentrato Zuccherato "The best kept Italian secret" spotted on the grocery shelf in Rome. Haven't tried it... yet. Have you?

biciclette love via Italia

Fresh off the plane from a wonderful week spent in Italy -- will be posting more snapshots shortly!

when in rome...

Packing our bags for a voyage to Italia. Any cycle-centric suggestions for Roma? Or Firenze?
Loved spotting this Alitalia ad last week - complete with bicycle theme...

Ciao Biciband! via Molletta Design

Melissa and Ignazio are a (husband and wife) duo dedicated to the things they ♥ - design and bikes.  They are also the engine behind Molletta Design and the Biciband!

Originating from Milan, Italy - Ignazio recently shared the origins of the Biciband with for the LOVE of bikes...

The first Biciband I made was a year ago and was just a rudimental strap I designed and built for my bike as I could not find anything I liked on the market. I don't like cages as when I to do tricks (or better, attempt to) they scratch the ground, and I didn't like other straps because they came just in black and I'm an "orange" type of guy.

I began making some for me and my wife Melissa, then since friends started asking to make them some I decided to let them available to anyone. I bought a bunch of webbing, manufactured the metal parts and started making some in my garage...

Prototypes developed and tested to achieve the final design - love seeing the progression over time.
Thanks for sharing these with us, Molletta!

The Biciband is currently available in 14 different colours! And even though they may have been designed with the fixed gear cyclist in mind, they can be practical to any cyclist who wants stay connected to their pedals.

Molletta Design on the streets of Las Vegas

Photos via Molletta Design

Hallå! Bianchi concept store

Stockholm is getting their very own (and the first) Bianchi Café & Cycles on October 30th -- "a glamorous meeting point for cycling enthusiasts and fans" as the company celebrates 125 years in the bicycle business!!! Love their iconic 'celeste' turquoise -- like a beautiful Tiffany box awaiting to be opened.

Thanks for the sneak peek, Victor!

And couldn't pass up posting these old photographs of Italian soldiers carrying folding Bianchi bicycles including the 'Model 1912'...

holy velodrome as runway

Thom Browne, the famed ankle length pant fashion designer, just put on one awesome Spring 2011 fashion show for Moncler at the ♥ Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan -- which the New York Times points out is...

where the Beatles played in 1965 and where concerts of the 1970s were routinely the scenes of riots over the injustice of paid ticketing: “I sometimes think that I should like/ To be the saddle of a bike.”

video via HipsterNascar

Even if they didn't make use of the track's banked corners - the show included nice traditional styled accessories with lots of two-way zippers, contrast binding, reflective detailing (some of which appears to be an overall pattern), bike-centric skinny ties + can't help but be partial to pink on men. Runway shots via GQ