Niall's Travel Blog

Bringing the banter to Bergamo

As I turned away from Milan, the rain started to pour down and I was surprisingly happy. The destination for the day was Bergamo where a friend of mine from college, Anthony Thuillier, was putting me up. With the prospect of a hot shower and a good catch up session ahead of me I kept pedalling and the pain in my knee wore away, allowing me to tentatively up the pace. I enjoyed cycling along by myself singing at the top of my voice, pulling out the old Irish rebel songs when I needed a lift up a hill.

I also found myself having much more craic with my new companion - Italy's motorists. I found a license plate on the side of the road and strapped it on behind my tent. I have also been grossly exaggerating my signals at roundabouts (especially after one near miss). These two, combined with what I can only imagine is a general perception of incredulity of seeing so much baggage on a bike, all combine to a bit of banter with the drivers. People roll down their windows and shout "Forza!", take photos on their camera phones (quite a dangerous practice while driving) and generally beep and wave a lot. I can't wait to see the reception in countries that don't have Italy's tradition of cycling.

Arriving drenched in Bergamo, I was delighted to see Anthony and, more immediately, his shower. I felt a new man after this and we go for a stroll, chewing over the world's problems as we walk. He cooked a lovely dinner for us and with the combination of the rain, Irish Salmon, mammy-baked brown bread and discussing Irish politics with Anthony I felt at home again.

The next day we had a lovely lunch and Anthony tells me some of the eccentricities and phrases of the Italians. One choice phrase is to give a girl "a good sweeping" - far removed, I think, from our sweeping a girl off her feet. After a bit of Anthony playing guitar in his apartment I encourage him to go out and busk and we head out, him earning €15.72. It was great to watch him and even singing along to some of the songs although the Bergamasche didn't seem to know what to make of some of the more esoteric Irish folk songs.

We had dinner at a pizzeria and before I opened my menu Anthony said to me "Now the problem with this place is that there's too much choice. Best to think of a pizza you like and see if you can find it". Incredulous, I opened the menu to see roughly two hundred pizza options! In the end, I picked using the blind finger drop method ending up with a delicious buffalo mozzarella pizza. With Anthony up at 3.30am for a flight to Istanbul and me with the road to Asia ahead we got an early night, aided in our sleep by a nightcap of grappa!

posted by Niall at 3:21 p.m.