Esmeralda's Road

I moved to Italy in October of 2015. My first stint was only three months, but immediately I realized that the absolute best mode of transportation in Florence was our two-wheeled friend, the bicycle. 

Growing up in LA and subsequently living in [the suburbs of] Atlanta, I had learned to ride a bike as a kid. Never had I ever had to use one for commuting. Ever. LA and Atlanta are driving cities. Nobody walks anywhere – no matter how close it is or seems. 

So, when I moved to Florence and had to start riding one on a regular basis… Well, let’s just say there was a serious learning curve. Not only is Florence quite the bustling city, its bike lanes (which we are ever so thankful for) tend to be pretty difficult to navigate given that they are not fully connected. They tend to end abruptly, forcing the commuter to decide whether to hop off and walk along their bike or (most often) ride on through the zona pedonale or even more problematic – on sidewalks. 

Disregarding the wonky paths… People are pretty aggressive on their bikes! Absolutely nothing like the bike commuters in places like Amsterdam, where they WILL keep barreling toward you til you jump out of the way just in the nick of time. But this is about my journey with bike commuting in Florence, so keep your snooty “that’s nothing, have you ever been to _______?” to yourselves, please and thanks. 

Back to my journey. As though navigating a new city in a new country on a whole different continent were not enough, add to that “start commuting by bike” and you’ve got yourself a recipe for exhaustion. Looking back now I chuckle at how complicated the streets seemed to me. I live pretty much a straight shot from the duomo. A straight shot if there wasn’t an enormous piazza about a quarter of the way, that is. Said piazza was a labyrinth to cross – especially during morning rush hour. 

My childhood trauma of never being “in the way” was hella triggered any time I had to bike between 8:00am and 9:00am. The expert commuters would zip past me, sometimes ringing their bells aggressively as if to say “togliti dalle palle!” Whenever I wasn’t biking, I would stare at the pro commuters in awe, studying their movements, their baskets and portapacchi. I felt clunky and clumsy on my new-to-me city bike with no gears (which we’d gotten for €50 at a flea market in Turin – likely stolen, my husband had said). Luckily Florence is a pretty flat city, albeit quite cobble-stoney, much like most of Italy. Given my recent move, I felt like I would never get the hang of it.

Add to that feeling the fact that temperatures were quickly dropping and my journey to be a seasoned bike commuter got even more complicated. My (what I thought was) cute and trendy fast fashion garments were all made of synthetic materials. Those chunky cable knit sweaters that were oh-so-cozy in the highly temperature-controlled United States did absolutely nothing to keep me warm in those first few months of bike commuting. Anzi, they actually made me colder as the synthetic materials would make me sweat and the wind easily cut through those chunky sweaters. 

By the time I’d arrive at my destination (Italian lessons) I’d be sweaty and exhausted – definitely not ready to absorb the information on a whole new language. But the evolution of my seasonal fashion and my must-have accessories will have their own blogs, stay tuned for that!

As if all of the above were not enough to cause serious anxiety every time I had to leave the house, the myriad of one way streets were quite confusing. Back in 2015 Google Maps did not have the bike route option, so figuring out which of the one way streets were “safe” enough to go down was a trial and error situation. Some of the streets are quite narrow, but given that they were less trafficked than others, they were ok to go down. Others were packed with cars on both sides and highly trafficked and thus forced you to find another way. The uncertainty at the beginning meant that getting places that now take me 10min would take 20-30 as I’d constantly have to stop to check my maps. Sometimes I’d go down an alternate street only to realize it would totally deviate from where I thought would take me. 

Eventually I learned to make the Duomo my main point of reference and I was also lucky that my husband made it a point to bike around with me and point out the paths to memorize. Little by little I gained confidence and was soon zipping around town with my basket and portapacchi packed to the brim. Eventually I learned that that was not a good look around these parts. But that blog will be explored under the Culture topic. 

Until next time!