Ciao bella

She claimed I only wanted to take her picture because of her bike.


Well it was a really really nice looking chain cased generatored Raleigh Bike. Pristene even. I think it was the only english bike I saw in sorrento.

Alot of the employees and proprietors in the shops in the narrow old section of sorrento had their bikes stashed in the back of their shop. The woman above, judging from where her bike was parked, worked at the "Pinko" store that sold the ubiquitous self labled Pinko Bags, probably il modo or something similar that is beyond my comprehension. I do get bikes though, and she had a winner.

The sorrento area though, as I suspect true for much of italy, is not about the bike, it is about the diesel fumes. I was high on the fumes of a million poorly tuned two stroke engines clogging the streets. It is a bad high, yet clashes pleasantly with the local white wines. I usually hate cars and scooters, especially hipsters riding smoke belching vespas, but when nearer to Rome than I have ever been before, one must do as the near Romans. Thus my number one favorite diesel fume emitter:


click for big

In the big picture you can see the mighty Fiat 500, conveyance to la gente, dwarfed by a VW Polo (a smaller VW Golf).