Return. Smog in Rome

I’ve been away from this for too long.  It’s still early in the year and probably still within an acceptable time period for making new year’s resolutions.  I maybe stretching that time, but I hope whoever regulates these things can give me a pass.  So my resolution is to return to writing here regularly.  That doesn’t mean every day, but at least a few times a week.

I’m working on a long-term writing project, a book I hope, on the Loire River.  I'm probably repeating something I've said earlier.  But in any case, it will be about things I saw while riding my bicycle along the river and things I want to know more about, especially environmental things.  I’m also interested in some of the history, certainly about the chateaux, but also about the commercial and industrial history of the river and canals.

So I’ll be posting little blurbs about those topics.  I also try to follow a couple of Italian newspapers and I’ll highlight environmental stories when I see them in those places; and, of course, similar stories in the U.S.

As it happens, the first post of the new year deals with Italy.  I probably should have know this, but Rome has a serious smog problem.  To try to cut down on auto emissions the local government has decreed a series of no-drive Sundays.  The next one will be this coming Sunday, 19 January.  Others are scheduled for 23 February and 23 March.

The government’s decision applies to the fascia verde or green zone, an area including about half of the city inside the GRA, the Rome “beltway.”  The restrictions don’t apply to the entire day, only the morning hours of 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and then again from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

This may be a way of showing people they don’t need to be so dependent on their cars.  But I doubt it will do much to reduce the smog.

Back in Paris

This may be an odd way to maintain a blog.  It's supposed to be a more or less daily log of what you're doing or what's on your mind.  But what I'm going to do here, at least for a while, is to post notes on what I've been up to over the last nearly six weeks.  I'm catching up on what I'd hoped do do during my Loire bike ride, but didn't.  I have several reasons (excuses) for that, but mostly they have to do with being busy riding, recovering from a ride, or exploring a little of the area where I was staying.  Most days while traveling, I did well if I made a few notes at the end of the day or next morning with coffee.

In the middle of July, I was back in Paris.  It was only for a couple of days, but it was good to be back.  I didn't always feel that way about the city.  My relationship with Paris wasn't love at first sight.  I've never quite understand why everyone is so seduced.  My appreciation came grudgingly and over time, the same as it did with New York.  Maybe this comes, at least in part, from growing up in Iowa and Los Angeles, the Midwest and Far West.  As an "outlander" I think I mistrusted their reputations, couldn't believe they were all people said they were.  I didn't think I needed whatever it was they offered.

Also, in the case of Paris, I learned French before I ever knew very much about France the country.  I'd learned the language in the Peace Corps to be able to teach English in Senegal.  I only got to know the country later, mostly through the Tour de France bicycle race.  In the late 1980's, when I first got interested -- a time before Google maps -- I'd sit with the Michelin road atlas and trace out each day's stage.  I learned the geography of the country; and I got familiar with regional cities and small towns where the Tour stopped regularly.  When we started traveling to France, I was more interested in visiting these places than Paris.  But that changed.  The city grew on me.  Every time we went, I got a little more comfortable; it felt better.  

A request

I'm still relatively new to blogging.  I started posting in September and didn't get to putting something up regularly until early November.  So I'm still learning some Blogger features.  For instance, page views.  Early on, Blogger stats might show me just one or two page views per post, sometimes none at all.  Lately, though, the numbers are up.  A post from last week shows nearly 40 page views.  Only a droplet compared to what I imagine established blogs receive, but it seems encouraging.  Or at least I think it is.  I can't be completely sure, because I don't know exactly what "page views" means.  I think they come from real people.  But I'm not 100 percent sure.

Thus this request.  If you're a real person and if you stop in, could you leave some kind of note.  Just "Hi" would be enough, but if you felt like leaving more of a comment, that would be great.  And it would be especially great if you had suggestions on how I could do this better.

Thanks.