Last week-end we went to Urbania, a beautiful village in the upper valley of the Metauro river, close to Urbino in the north of the Marche region. Urbania, the ‘old’ Casteldurante until 1639, was a dominion of the dukes of Urbino and is mostly famous for its ceramics and majolicas, and for the church of the mummies (a curious phenomenon of natural mummification preserved the bodies of 400-year-old dead, each one with his or her own story to tell).
I will soon post something about that but today I would like to share with you an amazing bike show we had the luck to bump into while rambling through the narrow streets of Urbania, dealing with old crafts… on bike! I remember my mother’s tales about the postman, the milkman or the blacksmith (on bike) stopping in the village of Ginestreto when she was a child and screaming: ‘Women, the knife grinder has come!!!’. But I had no idea that until not too long ago there were so many people who carried out their jobs riding bycicles from one village to the other: the barber, the chimney sweep, the butchter, the tailor, the baker, the seller of holy pictures (!), the doctor, the ragman, the clams seller … and the list seems to be neverending!
Thanks to Mr Maurizio Urbinati – the owner of this amazing bike collection – we went back in time in a fascinating journey.
I will not write any longer. The pictures talk by themselves.
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What a fabulous and fun find!!! Thank you for sharing!
It was incredible, indeed. When I think of the hard life those pepole led, riding the bike all around (and it’s hilly around here)… I think I shall never complain again about my job at the office 😉
Reminds me of Fuller Brush and Avon reps. going door to door in the not so far past in the US. Now everything is internet and advertising to tell us what we need.