Bella Ciao: My Road to BAM!

Words and photos by Bengt Stiller

This year, the time had finally come, and I was able to accept the invitation from Andrea Benesso, founder of BAM!, to attend as a guest and fill one of the presentation slots.

It has been three days since I returned home from BAM! to my home in Berlin, and I’m staring into the bright blue sky. I enjoy the dynamic flight of the swallows as they snatch insects from the air to feed their young, and I try to understand what I have just experienced. Something had happened, something so special had happened, that tears of joy keep welling up in my eyes. I was a participant in the eleventh edition of BAM!, the Bicycle Adventure Meeting in Piazzola sul Brenta, Padua, Italy. It was an event like I had never experienced before.

Our journey, or rather our road to BAM!, began in Peseggia, a small town not far from Mestre on the mainland before Venice. I was joined by Andrea and Kasia, bike friends living in Berlin. In Peseggia, Luca, an old friend of Andrea, was already waiting for us in his studio, where he and his brother Silvio make beautiful belts from old bicycle tires – upcycling at its best! (Cycledproject.com for all those interested.) I took the opportunity to take a closer look at the showroom, which originally served as a driving school, as well as his studio. Luca had planned a very relaxed tour for us, which would take us back to the mainland via Venice, the Lido, and Pellestrina along the Laguna di Venezia. He would join us the next morning and travel with us from Chioggia along the Brenta via Padua to Villa Contarini, the festival ground. So, there were a couple of very relaxed days on the bike ahead of us.

Rolling through Mestre is not exactly one of Italy’s cycling highlights, so I’ll spare the details of that part. It got better when we reached the ferry port in Mestre, where it began to smell of the sea and the distance. Suddenly, a much more pleasant, familiar feeling arose. The mixture of salt water, fresh fish, and the port did something to me, and the thought of a small adventure arose.

Boat trips always have something of a new beginning for me, even if it is a new beginning to something familiar. The ferry ride from Mestre across Venice to the Lido was, in this case, a short trip back to my earlier time as an architect. I was a visitor to the Architecture Biennale in the Giardini and Arsenale many years ago. The Architecture Biennale, which takes place every two years in Venice, is one of the most important architecture exhibitions, where architects from all over the world meet. A visit is worthwhile, even by bike!

The wind on the deck of the ferry had a refreshing effect, as the 28°C heat was clearly noticeable despite the slightly cloudy sky, and we were already sweating profusely in the first few kilometres. Venice showed itself from its most beautiful side. We passed St. Mark’s Square, and after 40 minutes, we were happy to get the bikes rolling again on the Lido. The route across the Lido leads mainly along beautiful sandy beaches, which seemed to await the main season at the beginning of June and holidaymakers who populate them in rows.

We reached our destination for the day in the late afternoon, a beautiful accommodation in an agriturismo on the island of Pellestrina. A short ferry ride from the tip of the Lido had brought us here. I don’t know whether it was the humidity, the heat, or the sweat of the day, but something drew us directly to the nearby fishing village and thus to a small bar by the water before we headed for our accommodation. Until sunset, we enjoyed the lively goings-on at the bar with all its guests, accompanied by fine snacks and Spritz Cynar. It seemed as if the whole place had come together for the evening. Che bello!

The night was hell. I fell asleep peacefully, but numerous stings abruptly brought me back to wide-awakeness. Mosquito alarm! After two hours of tossing and turning, trying to hide under the covers and annoyed again and again by the bzzzzzzz of the mosquitoes, I got up and searched the room for them with the help of my iPhone light. Once they were all swatted, finally, silence. Did I say silence?! No, far from it; Kasia’s work alarm clock woke me from the hoped-for sleep again at 6:36 a.m.

Luca was punctual, arriving shortly after 8 a.m. and urging us to leave soon, as it was again important to catch a ferry to avoid longer waiting times. Along the way, I noticed the many huts built on stilts in the water, all of which had countless fishing nets hanging on their wooden walls. Luca explained to me that the huts in front of the water were easier for the fishermen to reach by boat. That made sense and was a beautiful picture: so quiet, almost slumbering in the morning mist in the water. They probably didn’t have a mosquito problem, these houses, so quiet as they lay there. We reached the ferry on time, but there were already too many bicycles on board, so we had to wait anyway.

In Chioggia, where we reached the mainland again on the next ferry, we stepped on the gas to ride the remaining 90 kilometres to BAM! as we didn’t want to arrive too late in the evening. Our route led us more or less the whole day on wildly overgrown doubletracks and fine gravel roads along the Brenta River to Villa Contarini, our destination. Only at lunchtime did we turn off the route briefly into a nearby village to find some food. What looked like a small café or a bar in the front area grew into a stately restaurant with a lunchtime table in the back.

“If there are many workers sitting and eating in a restaurant at lunchtime, it means the cuisine is good and solid,” Luca emphasized. We could all only confirm this, and I had to agree with Kasia: I could have eaten two plates of pasta as well. In Padua, in addition to our ice cream, a small stop awaited us, as the BAM! team had ambushed us and asked us for a few photos. The sun was high in the afternoon, and it was noticeably warmer. We were eager to keep rolling out of the city with a tailwind. You could feel from the group how much everyone now wanted to arrive, relax, and enjoy the festival. And so, with each of the remaining 25 kilometres, our foursome grew. Cyclists suddenly appeared from everywhere, and so we rolled as a large group towards the same destination: Reaching the BAM! grounds in Piazzola sul Brenta. Bellissimo!

I was not prepared for what followed. Even five days after the festival, I am still in a state of euphoria. Never before had I experienced such an open, warm-hearted, inviting, and un-elitist atmosphere at a bike event. Of course, the beauty of an Italian Renaissance villa and its beautiful park cannot simply be set up in Germany, but it was much more than that that moved me. The villa was only a small part of the bigger picture. For two days, lectures and workshops were held at different locations of the festival from morning to evening, and everyone attended them in droves.

There were reports of great and small adventures and tips on emergency repairs, just to mention a few topics. The visitors showed genuine interest in each other and in what was presented. Hundreds of tents had found their place next to each other as if by magic, without folders and signposts. A few stations provided food for up to 10,000 visitors on the weekend; the pasta was excellent! There was no need for locks on the thousands of bicycles. At the stands of the various manufacturers, travel companies, and bag manufacturers, friendly and sincere exchange was more important than making sales. Again and again, groups came together for rides to and from the festival grounds, enjoying the atmosphere. Wherever you looked, you saw groups cheerfully talking. The crowd was radiant.

I’ll admit that I was nervous during the first days as I greeted old acquaintances and new faces. My last years have been personally and professionally marked by some ups and downs, and the last year had taken its toll on me again. After an accident in the spring through no fault of my own, I had broken my shoulder, and in late summer, I found myself back in the emergency room after a wasp attack. I wasn’t quite my old self, and I wasn’t even sure anymore if I still belonged in this scene. Through my exchanges with old friends such as Samu Sauri and Quinda Verheul, I was reminded that yes, I still belong.

One crucial aspect to mention is still missing: the music! On all days of the festival, there was music in some place on the grounds, whether it was a small DJ set at the 3T stand, a singer-songwriter evening at Santini, or the band Orchestrada that warmed the crowd up for hours on Friday evening until DJ Duo Malore Improvviso took over. If there had not been a requirement to stop the music at 1 a.m., they would have played until breakfast. I will never forget the last song that the band Balkan Bazar started on Saturday evening. The band and the thousands of dancers sang Bella Ciao, a song that could not better express the democratic spirit of the event. The crowd was raging, and it was wonderful. Amore!

That was it, now, my image, which I’d been looking for so long on the way back from the event. In 1960, the Neue Philharmonie in Berlin was opened by the architect Hans Scharoun, a masterpiece of its kind. With his design, he had created something completely new, namely an unprecedented form of the music hall. His design was based on the idea that when people spontaneously come together to make music, they immediately join to form a circle. And so, he designed the first concert hall in which the listeners are arranged in vineyards around the orchestra and together form a circle. This created a togetherness when listening to music. With its accessibility, togetherness, and the un-hierarchical design, the building represents a quasi-democratic form of music listening, and that is exactly what I experienced during the three days: a democratic festival without any barriers, free accessibilities, the exchange, and so much music. It was as if a circle had closed!

To the organizers, grazie mille per tutto! I’ll be back!

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