To Italy: van riding, songs and views!

I was in the van for two days and so it happened that I drove through the last of Switzerland and into Italy - my final country with the Peace Cycle. I acted as navigator in the front van for most of the time, which is no easy task in a country (Italy) that seems to have a particular dislike of street signs!! Much of the time I was relying on the feel of the roads to decide which direction we should go! There were a few disdainful comments about Australian navigation, but on the whole it all went smoothly!

Being in the van gives you an entirely different perspective of the ride. For one thing, you can see just how close some cyclists are to being hit by passing vehicles! But mostly, it gives you the opportunity to really observe the reaction of people on the street. My second full day in the van (from Milano to Parma) was particularly good, since for the first half of the day I didn't have any navigation to do! I could just sit in the back with my head sticking out the window singing along with the cyclists and speaking to pedestrians at stop lights!

Maria, our Italian-speaking organiser, taught me a short phrase of Italian: 'Fecamo Londra Gerusaleme con le bicicleta per pace!' (please excuse my spelling!) This means: We are going from London to Jerusalem on bicycles for peace! And what a response I got! Cheers, yells of 'Bravo!' and even once an Italian kiss from an old woman at stop lights! She took my hand and kissed one cheek and then the other, saying softly 'bravo, bravo'.

I have mentioned that as we ride through towns we all sing, but I don't think I've said any more than that. At the beginning of the Peace Cycle we used to just chant, but as the days went by we decided this was too aggressive sounding for the 'Peace' Cycle - especially since we chanted in English and after the first two days we were no longer in England! And so some people started writing up little jingles to well known tunes. One that was used most was based on an American military tune where one person sings out the line first and then the group repeats:

The Peace Cycle is on its way! (repeat)
Riding through (insert name of town/city) today! (repeat)
A justice call for Palestine! (repeat)
So join your voice along with mine! (repeat)

We don't want the occupation! (repeat)
All we want is lieration! (repeat)
The apartheid wall has to fall! (repeat)
Peace and justice for us all! (repeat)

Freedom! --- Justice!
Freedom! --- Justice!
Freedom!, Justice!, Freedom!, Justice!!!

Lots of exclamation marks! That's because it was a very boistrous song! Very fun to sing, but after a while the same criticism came back: too aggressive. It had a lot of English words which couldn't be understood by most people and since it was based on an American military tune, passers-by may think we're some sort of pro-military group (that is, if they missed the vans, our vests and the peace flags etc..) And so, we had another re-think!

On our journey from Parma to Bologna (Friday Aug. 25th), we stopped in a park for lunch. Here we met an Israeli Peace Activist! She just happened to see our vests and so approached us! She taught us a Peace song that they sing at their rallies in Israel:

Peace, Shalom, Salamalaikum
Peace, Shalom, Salamalaikum
Peace, Shalom, Salaamalaikum
Pray for peace in the Middle East
Lets have peace in the Middle East
We all want peace in the Middle East

(apologise for spelling! - I'm just writing words the way they sound to my ear!)

It's a beautiful graceful tune - very different from our other song! This song suited the environment of Italy's old cities perfectly!


I got back on my bike the same day we met that Israeli Peace activist! It was great after two and a half days in the van! The road was very flat, but also very busy! Huge trucks roaring past you is quite off-putting! If you don't concentrate you can find yourself being pushed and pulled in the wind currents that they create! On this first day of cycling again, there were beautiful pale purple flowered fields circling large Italian villas. But the landscape was also dry and desolate when compared to the north of Europe. Italy is much closer to Australia in its rustic beauty. It was a whole new European experience!

My favourite Italian cycling moment was definetly our discent onto Florence, or Firenze as the Italians call it. It was late, as we were running far behind schedule. It had been a hard day, as the day before our rest day's always are! The sun was beginning to fall as we reached the top of our final hill. We knew that we had to make the long discent into the city fast, as light was running out fast! All cyclists tried to gather whatever they could to make themselves more visible, but bike lights were few and far between. MAny cyclists were invisible in the dusk light. I knew that I myself was not very visible as I only had a weak back light (my proper lights were deep in my bag and I didn't have time to furrow them out). So, I removed my Peace Cycle bib revealing my fluoro yellow cycling shirt - I always did know it would come in handy! When I bought it, I had been tossing up between it (for safety reasons) or a darker blue one (for fashion reasons), I ended up leaning on the side of safety, but this descent into Florence was the first time I had called upon it! But boy was I glad I had it! From invisible cyclist I turned into a neon sign of ***I AM HERE!!!!!***

And down we went! Again, I want to do a little Ode to my Breaks! I love them so!! Some of that descent was steep with sharp corners and near-blind drivers (due to the bad light)! But then we saw the city. I can't quite put it into words, but picture your most romantic Italian architecture, sprinkle it over rolling golden hills with classicly Italian vegetation and olive trees, all focusing into the centre of a magnificent city. The old architecture, with its array of yellows, sandy oranges and creams was lit up by the fast-disappearing sun. I forgot about the dangers surrounding me as I just drunk in the view. In the words of Liane, one of my friends on the Cycle: 'it was lush!' Many cyclists stopped to take photos, but I didn't have enough trust in my ability to stop safely on a steep descent to do so myself. But I think I will always remember the beauty of that sunset!

By the time we entered the actual city in the valley, it was dark. Even my fluoro yellow shirt is not 100% successful at making me visible in absolute darkness! So all the cyclists got into pairs and stuck as close to each other as we could between the two vans, who kept their hazard lights on. Don't worry, we all survived the journey!