Thoughts on two wheels

I want to try to tell you about my four days on a solo bicycle, but as I think about it I realize that if on the one hand it is impossible to do it in such a small space, on the other I ask myself: will I be able to convey something of what I experienced ? So I say to myself... if saying everything is impossible (also because I'm wasting time on the introduction) I'll try to write only about one thing: slowness.

It's really banal to say, but when you pedal you see a myriad of details that you can never see in a car... they are details from times gone by, linked to the slow pace of walking, they are a myriad of fountains in small villages, streets dirt roads where foxes and rabbits cross your path. Places full of small chapels, of Jesus, Madonnas and saints of all kinds. They are slow roads and paths that remind you of only beautiful things... the scents, the wind, the streams and the cows. Everything is in harmony, and you find yourself continually saying: this is wonderful! Is gorgeous! And you can't do without it.

You keep stopping because there's something that catches your attention. You would like to go even slower to enjoy every moment. Then suddenly there's a highway where you have to be careful not to get hit by a truck. Then while you go with your head down you find all those animals squashed on the asphalt and you no longer have a way to say: it's wonderful!

You too let yourself be infected and start pedaling fast because you can't wait for it to end. The fruits of speed begin to appear around you, which are factories, shopping centers and dirt... and your thoughts begin to darken.

My grandfather always said: do you know why we are not made for speed? No, grandfather. Start walking, the answer is at the end of the road.

Andrea Gotico

NP Agosto-Settembre 2023