Who needs a driver? Or, a ride?

- October 22, 2011

DC coolest - A retro classic Vespa, a rare sighting in Washington, DC.

It's official - at least to some of the people who haven't known me long enough - I'm obsessed with the bikes. I ride bikes. I love when others do. And I take pictures of them - bikes, Vespas, motorocycles. Oh, wait, I need to make it clear - I love bikes, but only the 'petite' ones, not the monstrous Harley Davidson motorcycles. It's kind of an addiction now. The bikes, it is...

Basket it up for biking. Parma, Italy.

Old and new - bikes fit just perfect with the old Italian architecture...

The first bike I got was a four-wheel one, back when I was only four years old, the two wheels soon came off and I was speeding around the neighborhood in a two-wheel bike, while my mom was looking through the window outside, making sure I don't leave too far...

Slowly, but surely, I upgraded to a mountain bike, after a short stint with a thin-wheel bike in Germany...The next step - do I get a car or Vespa? I'm in love with Vespa. Every time I see it around the town, and or in Europe when I visit, I just want to steal it - it's so, so cute, and - at the same time - so stylish...I love all those European women, especially in Italy and France - come out of their small apartments, all dressed up stylishly with a little bright-colored helmet - and take off for a nice 9-to-5 office job...

Park a bike. Verona, Italy

So, who needs a driver? When you live in a bike-friendly town/city, riding a bike becomes not only a pleasant - duty-free - excercise, it becomes a life style. At least it is for me. I bike everywhere: to work, store, movies, events and even to a lounge - unless I wear very high heals and short dresses...Even then, sometime I venture - to the joy of the bystenders - who probably gossip a lot about 'that crazy girl on a bike in 5-inch heels...

Biking in Parma, Italy...

Scootering in Bologna, Italy

But, guess, what - in solidarity with the European and Japanese women - when I only have 10-15 minutes to get from one place to another, my bike makes it happen...It's a privilege to join the 'coolest European scooteristas', which is hard to match up to, but we in USA - we try....

Not even I - not even after all these years of biking - even me, who never leaves anywhere without my bike - can come close to those hip European women...And even, when you ruin a pair of heels on the gear shift, unless it's Louboutins, who cares? Life on two wheels is just so freeing!!!....