Italy is often associated with masterpiece movies like “Bicycle Thieves” (Ladri di biciclette). Italy was a very poor country then, but this year’s recession makes the movie resonate more and more. If thieves are still around, they will have plenty of material: according to the newspaper La Repubblica, in 2010 some 1.75 million bicycles were sold. The punch line though is that the figure, for the first time, is 2,000 higher than the number of new cars (macchine) registered.
Some areas of Italy have always been very bicycle-friendly, take for instance Reggio Emilia, which is nicknamed the Beijing of Italy because of the number of bicycles around. It may not be a coincidence that Cesare Zavattini, the screnplayer of Ladri di biciclette is from that town (full disclosure: your blogger is from the same town as well). However the sales data is truly a shock as the use of cars is extremely popular in Italy. Who said that high oil prices and recessions are bad?
