Finding the Sweet in the Sour

Biking is an integral part of the Florentine experience. With more and more of the city's streets closed to traffic, it is in fact one of the few ways to move quickly and easily around the city (assuming you handily mow down a few large tourist groups). I have chronicled some of my bike exploits here before; some of you may recall the story of Old Yeller. He remains in the loving care of my friend Kendra to this day, so when I returned last spring, it was important for me to find a new trusted wheely friend to get me around town in style.

Enter The Black Stallion. He's quite a steed, is he not? (Yes, my bikes are always male...) He likes his little flourishes of color, like the bright blue bell and the flashy red "lock" to prevent his saddle from being stolen.

I purchased this handsome beast from a student who was leaving Florence for the bargain price of €50 and have now spent three times that amount on locks and repairs.

For you see, someone pulled a Tonya Harding on my bike on Saturday night and punctured both tires. Yes, that's right: Both. Tires. I discovered the assault yesterday morning when I went out to do a little shopping in the center. After spending some quality time with him trying to ease his pain, I realized that my shopping excursion would be on foot, because the bike shops are not open on Sundays.

Fortunately for me, there is a nice little shop right around the corner from my house. This is the second time in two weeks that I have had to take The Stallion over there, last time it was chain- and brake-related. So they are starting to know me now and are really very nice to me.

Stallion and I limped over there together this morning and I told them in my halting Italian about the assault. They commiserated kindly and promised to make him whole again all in one day. I left him in their caring hands and went back for him this afternoon with my €45 to pay for 2 new tires and tubes. Turns out that we were not the only victims of this crime: another of my neighbors had just picked up their wheeled friend who had suffered the exact same injury.

Like Nancy Kerrigan did, The Stallion and I will come back stronger and better than ever. Those little "bastardi" will not get the best of us. Because if I have to go through this again, I might go all Mike Tyson on their asses.

As I left the shop, I said to the nice gentlemen who had nursed my friend, "I hope I am not back tomorrow..." and they replied "come back tomorrow only for coffee." Perfetto.

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