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Ilaria Fiorillo has written a book about love, before that about bicycles: «Getting into the saddle is truly an act of love, towards oneself, towards the community and towards the planet that hosts us». This young woman, who arrived a dozen years ago from Foggia in the North, combines the light of her land with a mature lucidity. She knows that the bicycle – her only means of transport and her philosophy – is not a magic wand but she can see all the possible ways. Of bicycles and other happiness. The stories and advice of a passionate cyclist on the healthiest, most sustainable and freest life of all is a fun, curious, cheerful book of genuine dreams and concrete projects, which asks everyone for a contribution.
You can think of Cycling for humans and for future: «Cycling is for all bodies and the bicycle is an inclusive, universal means of transport: it can easily adapt to use by every body type, age, ability and specific need; in this lies its uniqueness and I like to think that this is the reason why, at the venerable age of two hundred and more years, it moves undisturbed through the streets of the whole world“. Ilaria Fiorillo’s observation point is special, from the top of the thousands of kilometers traveled every year, in every corner, as she says on the Instagram profile @milano_in_bicicletta, a mix of city strolls, long journeys and the desire to create community, so much that in 2023 Ilaria was elected “Bicycle Mayor of Milan” by bycs, the global NGO based in Amsterdam that promotes urban change through the use of bicycles. And the data says that in countries where the density of cyclists is very high, Denmark and Holland above all, the number of accidents between cyclists is surprisingly low. In Amsterdam – recalls Fiorillo – it almost seems as if the bikes are moving in unison, like a flock of birds, a real choreography.
Two wheels
Two wheels teach you to love a landscape, a road, a moment, your own thoughts and also others, in a strong reconquest of humanity. Discovering ourselves as part of a community, those for example, who gathered in the Critical Masses, born almost everywhere after the experiences of San Francisco. Bicycle is freedom, democracy, rights, justice, environmental protection. Assuming we want to believe it because, in the latest budget laws, around one hundred billion euros have been allocated in direct support for the automobile and road infrastructure sectors, and just over a billion for bicycles. Who remain children in the sun, young people who sing and run away, gazes full of flowers. You’re happier on a bike. Of course, you are more true to yourself.
Ilaria Fiorillo
Of bicycles and other happiness. The stories and advice of a passionate cyclist on the healthiest, most sustainable and freest life of all
DeAgostini, pages. 192, €16.90