Fulco Pratesi has died. In Rome. He was 90 years old. In 1966 he founded WWF Italy. He dealt with ecology when the words smog and greenhouse effect were unknown. For decades, he was the most convinced, most combative, most representative environmentalist. An architect, urban planner, but also an illustrator, journalist, and writer, a Green Party deputy. And, in his own way, a cyclist. An urban cyclist, today one would say metropolitan, in Rome. In his blog, he remembered that "when in 1973, with the first major oil crisis, I decided to move around Rome only by bicycle, things were not easy at all". And he would tell: "At that time, the agile and elegant 'iron horse' was considered a vehicle for breathless and sweaty poor people. Many entrances and courtyards displayed a bicycle prohibition sign, from car windows came jeers, and most people invited by me to try (also for ecological reasons) the bike, would use as an excuse the many hills of Rome, not wanting to arrive sweaty at the office, the danger of traffic. Even today, seeing cyclists on the streets of Rome is difficult".

Pratesi "very much" liked pedaling: "No noise is made, nothing is polluted, you can see the sky, the flight of birds, and the facades of monuments that are difficult to see from car windows. Of course, the inconveniences for an urban cyclist are not few, as my over thirty-year experience teaches. Seven bicycles were stolen from me, a fall caused me to break an incisor, and smog shows no mercy. Years ago, my wife, who had gone to collect an X-ray of my respiratory system, heard the radiologist say 'Madam, your husband smokes too much! Tell him to stop'".

Pratesi explained how, to further encourage an already promising evolution, "some other initiatives would be needed. Alongside the still rare bicycle lanes, we should create, as in many foreign cities, 'mixed sidewalks' where, next to a section dedicated to pedestrians, there would be another for bicycle passage. I think, for example, of one that could go from the Verano Cemetery to the Olympic Village, passing through Regina Margherita, Liegi, Parioli, Pildsusky avenues. Or the Mazzini, Delle Milizie, and Giulio Cesare avenues, all with easily adaptable sidewalks". Something has been done in the meantime, much remains to be done.

The environmentalist added: "But, first of all, it would be necessary to convince citizens, launching appeals, facilitating bicycle transport on public transport and trains (still very problematic today), making mechanics authorized for repairs more widespread. Without deluding oneself, however: the slopes of the Seven Hills still scare people and Romans are lazy".

photo from wwwItalia