Pedalling of love, joy and infinite freedom

Ilaria Fiorillo has written a book about love, before that of bicycles: 'Riding is really 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 glimpses all possible paths. Of bicycles and other happiness. The stories and advice of a passionate cyclist on the healthiest, most sustainable and free life of all is an entertaining, curious, cheerful book of genuine dreams and concrete projects, which asks everyone for a contribution.

Cycling for humans and for the future: 'Cycling is for all bodies and the bicycle is an inclusive, universal medium: it can easily adapt to use by all body types, ages, abilities and specific needs; therein lies its uniqueness and I like to think that this is the reason why, at the venerable age of two hundred years and more, it moves undisturbed through the streets of the world'. Ilaria Fiorillo's vantage point is special, from the height of the thousands of kilometres she covers every year, in every corner, as she recounts on her Instagram profile @milano_in_bike, a mix of city rides, long journeys and the desire to make community, so much so 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 say that in countries where the density of cyclists is very high, Denmark and the Netherlands above all, the number of accidents between cyclists is surprisingly low. In Amsterdam,' Fiorillo recalls, 'it almost seems as if the bikes are moving in unison, like a flock of birds, a real choreography.

Two-wheelers teach us to love a landscape, a road, a moment, our own thoughts and also others, in a strong reconquest of the human. To discover ourselves as part of a community, those, for example, that have gathered in the Critical Masses, born a little everywhere after the San Francisco experiences. Cycling is freedom, democracy, rights, justice, environmental protection. Assuming we want to believe this, why, in the latest budget laws, some one hundred billion euros have been allocated in direct support for the automobile and road infrastructure sector, and just over a billion for bicycles. That they remain children in the sun, young people singing and running away, looks full of flowers. One is happier on a bike. One is certainly more true to oneself.

Ilaria Fiorillo 
Of bicycles and other happiness. The stories and advice of a passionate cyclist on the healthiest, most sustainable and free life of all
DeAgostini, pp. 192, euro 16.90