For Sale: 1951 Bianchi Aquilotto

I had previously written about a beautiful Bianchi Aquilotto that was part of a display here in Verona. One of these would be the ultimate in style, and energy conservation, for tooling around town in.

Blog reader Pietro has contacted me to say that he has a 1951 Bianchi Aquilotto for sale. Pietro's email address is, if you are interested, overbike@yahoo.com.

The following details, and photos above, were provided by Pietro:

Manufacturer: Bianchi

Year: 1951

Model: Aquilotto

Engine displacement: 45,3 cc two stroke

Power: 0,8 CV

Transmission: by roller pressure on the rear tire (and/or pedaling)

Weight: 32 kg

Documents (libretto): yes

User's manual: yes

Spare parts manual: yes

Location: near Novara
The bike is perfectly restored, the engine is refurbished and just run in, all is working and adjusted. It is perfect collector's piece.
The requested price is 3100 Euro, negotiable.

The "Arena" of Verona

The Amphitheatre in Verona one of the biggest and undoubtedly the best conserved of the roman monuments. It is better known as the 'Arena', the Latin word for sand, which was used to cover the area where the games and entertainments were held. It is one of the greatest and most prestigious archaeological monuments in Europe and its size makes it the third largest amphitheatre in Europe, after the Coliseum in Rome and the Amphitheatre Campano in Campania beside Naples . Even though it is known that the Arena was built in the first century A.D. during the last years of the emperor Augustus, neither Historians nor Architects have yet agreed on the exact date of the construction. Originally the Arena was situated outside the initial roman city walls. It has stood the test of time, even though the strength of the construction has been severely tried by earthquakes.

To construct the Arena in such a strong and resistant way, the Romans chiselled in to the Pastello Mountain and laid down cement foundations to form a plateau. A complex sewer system was designed to guarantee reliable drainage; three large circular sewers opened out under the ground of the three concentric tunnels, which made up the supporting structure of the first tier. Two other sewers lay under the principal axes of the building, major and minor, and directed the flow of the whole system towards the river Adige (studies have been carried out on one of these drains as far as 100 metres outside the grounds of the amphitheatre). The drains are of large dimensions, around 2 metres in height and of various widths, built with pebbles bound by mortar, which had horizontal rows of 3 bricks alternating through them. The covers for the drains were obtained by using slabs of stone. This technique is very similar to that used in the drainage system of Verona, which was part of the first urbanistic system of the city and was put into practise straight after 49 A.D. This would also make us be inclined to believe that a specific date for the construction of the Amphitheatre cannot be after the first decades of the imperial age.

The Arena has two tiers of arches and stands in a profound depression of around 2 metres when compared to road level. Originally the surrounding external walls were developed with three tiers of marbled arches. However, on May 21st, 1117 an earthquake caused the external ring of the arena to collapse, leaving only one wing on the northwest of the building. This wing is composed of 5 columns and 4 interposed arches in each of the three tiers. It is more than 30 metres in height, not including the above crowning part of the wall. The remaining wing gives us an indication of the original façade, which consisted of 73 columns made of 'Veronese stone'. This particular stone came from the town land of Sant'Ambrogio in Valpolicella near Verona and was also used to erect the doors and the other monuments referable to the 1st century A.D. Each column had squared sections, with each side of each square measuring 2 metres. Altogether there were 72 vaults on each tier. The arches opened out onto a corridor of nearly four and a half metres in width, which was positioned around the level of the second ring. This corridor/walk-way had passages and staircases leading off from it and was covered over to allow the spectators to position themselves easily on the steps, and to take shelter from the rain and the sun.

The Arena forms an ellipsis with its major internal axes measuring 75,68 m. and its minor one measuring 44,43 m. The external axes, including also the outer wall, which, as was already mentioned, has more or less completely disappeared, reaches 152 and 123 metres. The 45 rows of marble steps in the auditorium, which have an average height of 45 cm, are made up of a block of stone which is 40 metres thick, and are sustained by arches and walls laid out in the form of 4 rings.

The outermost ring served as the façade of the building. This second ring, which is on view today, following the disappearance of the 1st façade, was reinforced with a very resistant conglomerate of cement, pebbles from the river and fragments of bricks or cotta tiles.The Stage erected in the Summer in the Arena is the biggest in the world. It measures 47 metres by 28. Small garrets are positioned around the circumference of the Amphitheatre and those positioned behind the stage are used as changing rooms for the artists, who reach the stage by descending a steep wooden staircase.The good state of preservation of the monument is clearly due to the way it has always been utilized. In the past the amphitheatre was an important venue for culture and entertainment, as well as a harmonious meeting point for society. From the very beginning of its existence, the Arena hosted gladiatorial fights, circuses, jousts, tournaments and equestrian shows. From the 18th century onwards, theatrical performances became a constant feature.

The text above appears at http://www.arena.it/

I have the good fortune to usually end my rides by coming into Piazza Bra where the Arena is located. It's amazing.

James Bond 007, Lake Garda, "Quantum of Solace"

We had been planning a trip to Malcesine a couple of Wednesday's ago but the road along Lake Garda (named the "Gardesana") was closed as filming had begun for the new James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace". From April 14 to 24, several towns on Lake Garda (Gargnano, Tremosine, Limone sul Garda, Torbole, and Malcesine) were the film sets for the 22nd James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace", directed by Marc Forster and Dan Bradley.

Unfortunately, some of the breathtaking scenes involving James Bond's famous Aston Martin and high-speed car chases led to spectacular plunge into Lake Garda (youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lishxkzmUtI). A few days later there was also an accident on the set involving two Alfa Romeos. I've been saying the road can be dangerous....

So, when you go to the movies to see Quantum of Solace keep you eyes peeled for the Lake Garda scenes, the tunnels we share cars with, and the wonderful scenery. And, if you decide to come and ride here make sure you hook up with Eros Poli.

How Do I Explain This?

This is a photo from a recent ride. And, the things I learned from this ride were: a) I should always carry my camera, b) you never know whom you are going to meet on a ride, c) well, it's just different here, d) all of the above.

Soooooo Much Riding....

Photos above are from April 12th.

Saturday, 12 April, I felt really good on the bike, as if I had reached another plateau of fitness. It didn't come by auto-magically, this cycle of KMs started innocently enough on Saturday, 29 March.


On that Saturday in March I thought it would be nice to join Eros Poli's Saturday morning ride. Eros led out at a nice pace and took us to Cavion where were did a very nice, new, climb before descending into Bardolino. Eros was planning to wind his way back to Verona so at this point I suggested to Brent that we head north to Torre del Benaco. On the way we latched onto some wheels and arrived at Torre quickly. It was such a nice day we decided to continue further north for a visit to Malcesine.


It was a beautiful early late morning in Malcesine so we wandered around the small streets and found a small piazza to have some pizza. It was such a nice day we decided to continue onto Torbole, at the north end of Lake Garda. Arriving there we decided to continue on....the climb to Nago, to Mori, finally turning south towards Peri and finally Verona. The trip south was hard with a really strong headwind. Fortunately (!), I had a front wheel flat that gave us a few minutes of rest. We stopped in Peri for a panino to re-charge our batteries before continuing on to Verona. What started innocently enough had turned into a 170+ Km ride (105+ mile ride). That's the earliest in a year that I've done what we Americans call a "Century" ride.


The next day, Sunday was a spinning, recovery ride, to Bardolino with some cruising on the back roads. Tuesday was busy with a trip to Dario Pegoretti but Wednesday it was back on the bike for the Gruppo 1 club ride (Damiano Cunego blew by us so fast going in the other direction that we didn't have a chance to yell, "Stoppppppp!!!"). Thursday was the ride to climb from Peri to Fosse (see earlier blog entry), the earliest I've ever tackled that climb.


The following week I managed to get in a few good rides. On Wednesday I was at the front of club ride when 3 guys motored by and it took me one second to recognize one of them as Rasmussen. So I closed the gap (let's be clear, they weren't going that fast) and rode alongside Rasmussen for about 10 minutes, chatting away with him while a Liquigas and another guy were doing the pulling . That was fun. The riding around here is amazing.


Which brings me to 12 April. The Gruppo 1 club ride had scheduled a 160 km ride with a start time of 0800 from the club headquarters. Looking out my windows it didn't look promising, and the http://www.meteo.it/ forecast for where the ride was headed looked nasty. I decided to ride to our headquarters, perhaps there would be a change in the ride. As I crossed Ponte Nuovo in Verona it was sunny but you could see the dark clouds to the north.


I rode through San Massimo with its beautiful church to arrive at HQ.


Only 4 other brave souls had decided to get out of bed early. The long distance ride was cancelled so I volunteered to lead what turned out to be a 90 km ride under sunny skies. As long as we stayed south of the storm line we enjoyed what was a fantastic day, sunny and cool.


My partners in crime were "I Hate to Climb" Renzo, "The Energizer and Tireless" Daniela, "I'd Rather be Riding My Motorcycle" Massimo, and "I'll Go Anywhere" Franco.


I feeling was great on this day so I decided to climb Torre del Benaco to Albisano out of the saddle, all the way. It's at least a 5km climb but I did it rather easily but not so fast (I can't do both!). Three years ago I thought I was going to die going up when I first climbed it. By the way, this is a great road for some nice views of Lake Garda.


From Albisano we passed through Maciaga (Renzo was mumbling bad words under his breath at this point), and then it was some back roads into Verona. Great day.

"Cancer Man" aka Antonio

When we first arrived in Verona we absolutely didn't know anyone, including any bike riders. I quickly learned that on Sundays the "Lungadige" (Adige River frontage) road was closed on Sundays to vehicles and lots of clubs would meet there for their Sunday ride starts.

The following Sunday I arrived too late for any of the club rides but I did meet Antonio. He was kind enough to tolerate my terrible Italian and gracious enough to show me the way to Lake Garda.

Antonio is one of those typical "older" Italian guys that has been riding his entire life. He also happens to be very, very passionate about bicycles. Despite being about 65, in the last 4 or 5 months he has purchased 3 new Colnagos: a steel Master, the Ti model, and the carbon Extreme Power. He wanted to compare them. That's on top of the other bikes he already has.

By the way, these "older" Italian guys that have been riding their entire lives never consider themselves "old", and no one else does either. "Old" here means someone in the 80s or 90s (I'll have to get a photo of Armando who is 95 riding his city bike).

I've nicknamed Antonio "Cancer Man" because at every possible opportunity he has a cigarette. I know, it's crazy. He also rides without a helmet, also crazy.

Thanks Antonio for my first ride in Italy and all the laughs. And, all the times you attacked me on Monte Grappa.

addendum: "Le Blaireau" left the following comment:
"Bit worried when I saw the title but by the third photo realized the reason. Hectic!! I've heard though that back in the day the big tour riders would also smoke because they believed it helped increase lung capacity?!?!?"

Yes, it's true, see this photo:

Chesini Track and Fixed Gear Frames

Back in December I wrote here that Chesini would once again build some custom track/fixed gear frames until their availability of lugs and tubesets were exhausted. They received many inquiries and as time passed the project continued to evolve. In the end, the decision was made to focus on building a replica of the 1985 track bike that was built at the time to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Chesini.

Two of the original inquirers proceeded with their orders and were recently sent their completed, made to measure, custom frames. While each customer took a slightly different approach to personalizing their builds, both of the results were outstanding.

This Denmark bound track frame was pearl white, with a chromed rear triangle and all chrome fork. The lettering was in silver with black outlines.

This USA bound frame was gloss black, chromed rear triangle, lugs, and fork (drilled for a brake) with a matching painted crown.

For additonal information contact Chesini at: paolo DOT nappa AT chesini DOT it