I cycled down to the Castel Sant’Angelo this evening because I’d seen a poster in the local bar advertising fireworks at 9:00 pm. Today being the Feast of SS Peter and Paul and a holiday here in Rome, that seemed entirely likely. In the event, an hour later, no fireworks had happened. I’ll have to c...

Yesterday was full-on tourist travel day. Summer Palace first thing in the morning. Then the Great Wall. Then lunch in an authentically exotic restaurant hard by the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park. Then the Forbidden City and finally Tiananmen Square. Nothing I could say about any of those places wou...

This is odd. Last night I went on the Critical Mass Rome bike ride again, and it was a very pleasant, sedate affair. We pedaled slowly along the Lungotevere and up the via Cavour (and elsewhere) notably to give people on motorized two-wheelers a hard time.