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The Handsomest Man in Cuba has just appeared in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, June 2, 2007 - 'The Summer Reading guide'. It's about about 8 inches of review in a Travel book Section. My agent Peter McGuigan (pictured below) says it's very unusual for a first time paperback, especially by a fabulous nobody like me to appear in the guide. A friend in NY said, and I quote, "you should expect to get laid by the literati every day for a year now." (He's mortified that I actually wrote that, saying it drags the tone of this blog into the gutter). He'd better not read my book then! Bike Friday even gets a mention! Thanks to all the folks at Globe-Pequot, Bike Friday, Peter McGuigan, and those who made it happen along the way. Read the full review on the NYT site or read the text of it below. Read the blurbs from the first two pages of the book . +++ Travel books can generally be divided into two categories. First there are the ones

This is a re-post of a trip review written for Bike Friday and Ciclismo Classico. Ciao tutti! Ready for a truly stellar, fully escorted bicycle tour of Italia? One that comes standard with stupendously good food, spectacular walled cities, a panoramic pedal through the Appenines with several challenging climbs into a luxury 4-star hotel bed? Put another way, if you're over pulling rocks from under your Thermorest, scrubbing congealed oatmeal from your MSR stove, and standing on traffic islands with a fragmented map flapping in your face, welcome to touring the Ciclismo Classico way. I was privileged to review one of the company's most popular tours:  Bike Across Italy . Spanning 'the mid-calf to the mid-shin' of the boot of Italy over ten days, this moderately challenging tour takes in the regions of La Marche, Umbria, Tuscany and Lazio, starting in Fano on Adriatic sea and ending in Porto Ecole on the Mediterranean. The average mileage is about 50 gradually

A Bike Friday, a regular bike, or a Ciclismo Classico bike - Dave Pruitt and the Gal choose different ways to Bike Across Italy Some notes on the gear and getting to/from for Ciclismo Classico's Bike Across Italy trip, as experienced by former Bike Friday Customer Evangelist, Lynette Chiang, who did the trip in the May 2007. FLIGHTS and CONNECTIONS The Ciclismo Classico staff, Erika and Jewel, were able to both arrange all travel and give me detailed advice on the connections. Because Bike Friday folks tend to be independent, I wanted to know if it was necessary to bring the Bike Friday Travel Trailer. My connections were as follows: NYC -> (London, 6 hour flight) -> Rome (4 hour wait, 2 hour flight) -> Rome Airport Train Station (has elevator) -> Roma Termini Train Station (30 mins, 11 euro) -> Overnight in Hotel San Remo, Rome (20 minute walk from station with bags, tired) -> next morning, Roma Termini Train Station (10 min walk with bags, havi

A duffel, a Bike Friday, and a laptop on your back - the uniform of the professional BF World Traveler  May 12, 2007: Day 1 PHOTO GALLERY JUST MY LUCK. I haven't landed in Italy in primo health. I've been uncharacteristically under the weather for more than a month after suffering a bout of laryngitis that came down on me like a ton of bricks on Easter Sunday. It took an eternity to pass. Darn damp Oregon weather. I had to cancel my Indianapolis and Chicago talks and head straight for NYC. All the fitness I'd acquired from 3 months in Australia riding three times a week with the BF Club of Sydney over winter and attending Desert Camp in March seemed to go down the tubes. Well that's how it feels. But rather than complain, we must simply treat life like the weather - there will be sunny days and stormy days and you just, well, weather it. I got on the plane in 97% condition and, suffered a second setback. Somehow I must have eaten someth

Towns: Fano, Bellochi, Calcinelli, Calmazzo, Fossombrone, Urbino The customary dipping of the rear wheel in the Adriatic sea - the start of the journey west. MAY 13, 2007: DAY 2 PHOTO GALLERY If Day 1 put a smile on everyone's faces, Day 2 quickly turned it into a grimace. Thank heavens the medieval splendor of our destination town, Urbino, made everyone forget about the climbing immediately before. "It's not really any harder than any other day, it's just because it's the first day," said Dana. Things started out chipper with a dipping of our rear tires in the Adriatic, something I've never really bothered to do, but made for a great picture - as long as you don't get sand in your rear hub. As the week wore on, we all became stronger, but those of us who never train, or treat the first day of any tour as the first day of training, like yours truly, were taken by surprise. I found my legs completely devoid of energy at mile 36

Towns: Calmazzo, Furlo, Acqualangna, Cagli, Frontone, Serra San Abbondio, Sassoferrato, Genga Stazione The spectaular Gola di Furlo river gorge, in the Le Marche region May 14, 2007: Day 3 PHOTO GALLERY NOTHING like a museum visit to start the day. The Duke Federico da Montefeltro , one of the five bigwigs ruling Italy in the 15th century, lived in a 365 room house decorated with stupendous inlay, sculptures, tapestries, and paintings. This old house is now called the Museo Palazzo Ducale, and is considered a relatively small but significant center for the kind of art within. We got to cruise a lot of the rooms thanks to a special guide who came all the way from Fano. I marveled at doors and entire walls paneled with intricate inlay, using 47 different kinds of wood. When I say intricate, I'm talking the eyebrows, nosehairs, and various folds of cloth are rendered in different kinds of woods. Our guide told us how a school party defaced one of the paintings whi

Gubbio: The annual Candle Race (La Festa dei Ceri) starts day before with all Gubbio townsfolk in festival dress Towns: Grotto de Frassasi, Sassoferrato, Scheggia, Ponte Calcara, Gubbio MAY 15, 2007 Day 4 PHOTO GALLERY WE STARTED the day with a visit to one of the most spectacular limestone caves in Europe - the Grotto de Frassasi (10 Euro pp). You enter through a long, damp tunnel with portcullis-like doors that slide open and shut behind you. Like 'Get Smart' meets 'Batman'. This natural wonder is indeed wondrous. A yawning subterranean cavern that could hold the entire Duomo of Milan and then some, with rivers, lakes and ravines, spiked by fantastic butterscotch-colored pillars sprouting from the distant roof and floor. One's sense of perspective is completely flummoxed in this place. The guide pointed to a stalactite called the Madonna, that looked, oh, about 4 feet tall, and told us it was 24 feet tall. A series of thin, foot-long spaghetti tub

Heeeere comes the Saint ... St Ubaldo always wins, despite nearly toppling sideways atop his 600 kg 'candle May 16, 2007: Day 5 PHOTO GALLERY NO ONE with a personality ever rubbished a rest day on a challenging bike trip. After much grinding uphill in the unexpectedly toasty May heat, the group rejoiced the opportunity to languish in mystical, medieval Gubbio for two nights. I had every intention of sleeping in and trying to shake the stomach bug that had been dogging me since getting off the plane, but this was not to be. Starting at 5am, what sounded like a 44 gallon drum being refashioned with a frozen leg of ham reverberated in the street below, reminding me of the STOMP performance I saw recently in NYC. A cacophony of cheering, bell clanging and cornet bleating followed, repeated every fifteen minutes until my alarm sounded. The centuries-old Festa dei Ceri, or Festival of the Candles, is celebrated every May 15 in many parts of Italy and also in Italian

David of 'Team Colorado' tackled the pavement with gusto despite being dressed for some serious dirt May 17, 2007:  Saints and a heavenly wine tasting Day 6 PHOTO GALLERY A QUIRKY delight we've become accustomed to is climbing out of a medieval town on cobbled 1-way streets. We have to share it with walkers and cars in both directions, but somehow, everyone squeezes past everyone and all is well. Today's lunch was a Ciclismo Classico style picnic at a local bar. When I say 'bar' I don't mean some awful sports dive with neon beer signs, odious carpet, a cacophonous TV and a generic rock'n'roll dirges blasting over tinny speakers. A bar in Italia is often a little quaint hole in the wall that might resemble a tiny cafe, serving tiny cups of coffee or beer. The lunch was provided by a local family, and the simple menu consisted of melon, proscuitto, salad, tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, fresh fruit, bread, grilled eggplant, all doused in

Traditional paper making in the town of Bevagna - a labor of love, like home made pasta! May 18, 2007:  Sunflowers, Olive Groves, Vineyards, and the Todi Challenge Day 7 PHOTO GALLERY FOR two days Andreas talked about the Todi Challenge and how difficult it was. "Who's going to do the 17-22% hill?" he crowed. This had the effect of psyching out all but two contenders - Dave with the carbon fiber Scott, who'd been spending most of his time chasing down lithe Italian stallions whipping past us on their Colnagos, with occasional sidelong glances at the bucolic scenery, and Bob, who, at 60 going on 40, clearly had a secret we all wanted to share. We had all day to decide ... The first stop was at a wonderful little town called Bevagna, and a tour of a one-man traditional paper making workshop. We watched as the artisan explained in Italian how he collected old rags, chopped them up, soaked them in lime, used a foot cranked turbine to crush them to a pul